Manufacturing Against Corrosion: Increasing Materials Performance by the Combination of Cold Work and Heat Treatment for 6063 Aluminium Alloy

Abstract

Nowadays, the search for more reliable and less fuel consumable structures for off shore applications leads to the development of modern materials selection and manufacturing methodologies. In this sense, Aluminum alloys has increasing for structural application due to lightweight, weldability and corrosion performance. This research aims to evaluate the influence of manufacturing process of 6063 aluminum alloy on corrosion behavior in seawater medium. After the combination of heat treatment and cold work variation, the materials were analyzed by microstructural and mechanical tests. The sample also were submitted to Potentiodynamic polarization analysis. The results prove the applicability of cold work process in order to elevate corrosion performance of 6063 aluminum alloys. This can be a low cost and time consumable, alternative to increase materials performance.