The development of aviation industry demands hot rolled aluminium alloy extra thick plates. However, it is quite difficult to obtain sufficient and uniform deformation of extra thick plate by conventional hot rolling process. The asymmetric hot rolling can generate an additional shear deformation and significantly improve the equivalent strain at the centre of the plate and consequently the uniformity of the microstructure, and mechanical properties. In the present work, the asymmetric rolling (ASR) was achieved by adjusting the diameters of the upper roll and the lower roll and was used to prepare hot rolled thick plate of an aluminium alloy. The effect of the asymmetric hot rolling process on the deformation, shape control, microstructure and mechanical properties was experimentally studied. The results showed that the ASR has a significant effect on metal deformation and can somehow refine microstructure and improve the uniformity of microstructure and properties although plate bending often happens during rolling process. This paper presents these results and gives corresponding discussions.
