In the world of metals, mechanical properties are very important. We are always looking for ways to improve them. One possibility is heat treatment. In this work we have investigated the alloy AlSi10Mg and its mechanical properties in two cases. It was treated with a higher cooling rate of 100 K/s and a lower one of 5 K/s and then heat treated. We performed a T5 heat treatment in which artificial aging took place at a temperature of 160 °C and a duration of 6 hours, and a T6 heat treatment in which solution heat treatment took place at 530 °C and a duration of 6 hours, followed by artificial aging at a temperature of 160 °C and a duration of 6 hours. Hardness was measured using the Vickers method. Compressive strengths were determined by compression tests. The microstructure was examined by metallographic analysis.
We found that the hardness at a higher cooling rate in the as-cast state is higher than the hardness at a lower cooling rate, which is mainly due to smaller dendritic grains and other microstructural components in the microstructure. Hardness increases with heat treatment and is highest after T6 heat treatment at a higher cooling rate.
Compressive strength in the as-cast state, like hardness, is higher at a higher cooling rate than at a lower cooling rate. After the T5 heat treatment, it decreases slightly at both cooling rates, but then increases after the T6 heat treatment.
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