6061 Aluminum Performance Introduction and Use

What is 6061 Aluminum?

6061 Aluminum is an aluminum alloy with silicon and magnesium as the main alloying elements. It is a precipitation hardening aluminum alloy. 6061 Aluminum is known as the most versatile and common alloy among aluminum alloys. It has strong mechanical properties and good solderability. This alloy is usually used for extrusion. After alloy 6063, it is the second material mainly used for extrusion.

Excellent Characteristics of 6061 Aluminum

6061 Aluminum is a high-quality aluminum alloy produced by heat treatment and pre-stretching process. Although its strength is not comparable to that of the 2XXX series or 7XXX series, its power is similar to that of magnesium and silicon alloys. It has excellent processing properties and excellent performance. The welding characteristics are good corrosion resistance, high toughness, no deformation after processing, dense material, easy to polish, easy to color film, and good oxidation effect.

Use of 6061 Aluminum

1. 6061 Aluminum is widely used in decoration, construction, transportation, packaging, electronics, aerospace, and other industries. 
2. Aviation 6061 Aluminum is used to make fuselage frames, aircraft skins, rotors, propellers, fuel tanks, wall panels, and landing gear pillars, as well as rocket forging rings, spacecraft wall panels, etc. 
3. 6061 Aluminum for transportation is used for the material of the body structure of subway vehicles, railway passenger cars, and automobiles, and used for shelves, doors and windows, automobile engine parts, radiators, body materials, wheels, and ships. 
4. Packaging 6061 Aluminum is used as the can-making material for all-aluminum cans, mainly in thin aluminum sheets and thick aluminum foil as metal packaging materials. It is widely used in food, cosmetics, beverages, medicines, and industrial products. 
5. 6061 Aluminum for printing is mainly used to make PS plates. Aluminum-based PS plates are a new material in the printing industry for automated plate making and printing. 
6. 6061 Aluminum aluminum alloy for architectural decoration has good corrosion resistance, sufficient strength, excellent process performance, and welding performance. It is widely used indoors and windows, suspended ceilings, building frames, decorative surfaces, etc. Such as aluminum profiles for curtain walls, various building doors and windows, aluminum curtain wall panels, profiled panels, checkered panels, color-coated aluminum panels, etc. 
7. 6061 Aluminum for electronic appliances is mainly used in various fields such as wiring, bus bars, conductors, refrigerators, air conditioners, electrical components, and cables. It is represented by round rods and square rods, and its uses include electrical fixtures, aerospace fixtures, and communications.

Alloying Elements of 6061 Aluminum

The main alloying elements of 6061 aluminum alloy are magnesium and silicon and form Mg2Si. A certain amount of manganese and chromium can neutralize the harmful effects of iron; if a small amount of copper or zinc is added, the strength of the alloy can be increased without significantly reducing its corrosion resistance; there is a small amount of copper in the conductive material, Can offset the adverse effects of titanium and iron on conductivity; zirconium or titanium can refine the grain and control the recrystallized structure; generally, lead, and bismuth can be added to improve the machinability.
The main alloying elements in 6061 aluminum alloy are magnesium and silicon, which have good corrosion resistance, medium strength, weldability and other characteristics, and good oxidation effect.

Features of Magnesium Aluminum 6061

Magnesium-aluminum 6061-T651 is the primary alloy of the 6-series alloy. After heat treatment and pre-stretching process, it is a high-quality aluminum alloy product; magnesium-aluminum 6061 has excellent processing performance, good corrosion resistance, high toughness, and no deformation after processing. It has excellent characteristics such as easy coloring and a superb oxidation effect.
Primary use: Widely used in various industrial structural parts that require specific strength and high corrosion resistance, such as trucks, tower buildings, ships, trams, and railway vehicles.

Typical applications of 6061Aluminum include aerospace fixtures, electrical fixtures, and communications. They are also widely used in automated mechanical parts, precision machining, mold manufacturing, electronics and precision instruments, SMT and PC board solder carriers, and so on.

Performance of 6061 Aluminum

6061 Aluminum can be heat-treated and strengthened to medium and high strength. Aluminum alloy is widely used in transportation, aerospace, electronic products, and architectural decoration.
①. Due to the poor room temperature forming performance of 6061 Aluminum, the influence of process parameters (such as strain deformation, temperature deformation, speed, etc.) on the plastic deformation of the material is very complicated, which is directly related to the microstructure and properties of the prepared bulk UFG material and the final forging billet. Molding quality.
②.6061 Aluminum multi-directional forging, the forming load is the most sensitive to the deformation temperature, and the equivalent strain is the most sensitive to the deformation pass;
③.6061 Aluminum billet has a “bulging” phenomenon during the multi-directional forging process, and the metal flow in the central longitudinal section shows an “eight” shape. With the increase of the number of deformations, the accumulated strain in the material gradually increases, and the uniformity of deformation is continuously improved;
④. The multi-directional forging process can forcefully refine the grains and effectively improve the mechanical properties of materials. With the increase of the number of deformation passes, the internal grain refinement and uniformity of the 6061 Aluminum material continue to increase, and the mechanical properties are further improved, but the increase gradually decreases after two passes;

⑤.6061 Aluminum is forged in four passes, the hardness and strength of the material are significantly improved. The microhardness and tensile strengths are 861HV and 223MPa, respectively. Compared with the initial as-cast state, the increase is 140.5% and 102.7%.

As a relatively important material product, 6061 Aluminum plays an important role in many fields. So the above explained the reasons for everyone, including the advantages and characteristics of 6061 Aluminum and professional interpretation of performance parameters, and in addition, it also includes common application fields and scopes, etc., for those who are interested in purchasing For friends of materials and products, it is extremely necessary to understand in advance, which can help us save a lot of costs.