Investigation of transformation of ferrous phases in 6XXX alloys during homogenizing annealing

The only operation of heat treatment of 6XXX alloys before extrusion is homogenizing annealing. The presence of needle particles of β-Al₅FeSi in a billet for extrusion negatively affects the limit extrusion rate and surface quality of extruded products. Passage of the phase transformation of ferrous phases is the main limiting factor in the length of homogenizing annealing. In this work the method of quantitative phase transformation analysis is proposed for estimation the completeness of the homogenizing annealing.