Re-precipitation of the matrix takes place during Retrogression and re-aging treatment, and this has

coarsened the grain boundary precipitates. Retrogression treatment has dissolved the less stable
precipitates, allowing it to grow precipitation of n as more stable grain boundary precipitates. Thus, re-
aging enhances the re-precipitation of n’ phase. This could be the reason for improvement in properties
of T6 temper. -16

Microstructure picture -16

The tensile strength increases gradually with the prolonging of aging time. The peak value up to 788 MPa
of tensile strength presents at 48 h. And then the tensile strength decreases gradually, also the character
of over-aging is more and more obvious. The elongation has somewhat decreased, but it presents a
smooth variation (8%-10%) with the increase of aging time. -microstructure discussion

The plates received from the manufacturer were processed such that the material developed
characteristic grain orientations. Figure 1 shows the longitudinal or rolling direction (L), transverse (T), and
short transverse (S) directions. Figure 1 also shows that all the specimens were machined such that the S
and SL orientations were evaluated. This orientation was chosen because it results in the highest SCC
susceptibility for this material. RRA heat treatments were conducted on the pre-machined specimens in
the T6 temper. This is consistent with previous research where the RRA heat treatment was applied to
material received in the T6 condition. -10.00000

Following this peak in hardness, continued retrogression will cause the hardness to decrease as the
material overages. These results are similar to results obtained in previous research performed at higher
temperatures. However, the time to reach the initial minimum on the retrogression curve was much
shorter for the higher retrogression temperatures. Hardness performed after re-aging indicates that the
hardness of the RRA condition increases to a maximum, then decreases as a function of retrogression
time. 10.00000

Table 3 shows the 0.2% yield strength of aluminum 7075 in the T6, T73, and the RRA tempers. The results
indicate the RRA tempers did not cause a reduction of strength compared to the T6 temper, and in some
cases produced yield strengths higher than both the T73 temper and the T6 temper. -10.00000

In general, the fracture surfaces in these micrographs indicate that the material increases in ductility with
increasing overall aging time: T6→RRA→T73. Improvement as a function of temper is evident by the
increase in number and decrease in size of the ductile fracture sites as the temper time increases. -10.000
Conclusion

The results of this research indicate that the T6 temper exhibits strengths that are ten to fifteen percent
higher than the T73 temper but has crack growth rates that are approximately ten times faster than T73.
Furthermore, the T6 temper fails much more quickly when subjected to 3.5% NaCl in the alternate
immersion test. The RRA temper alleviates the trade-off in properties between these two tempers.
However, the use of a high retrogression temperatures limits the use to thinner sheets of material. This
research proved that lower retrogression temperatures and corresponding longer retrogression times
alleviates the tradeoff between the T6 and T73 temper for AA 7075. -10.00000