Adjusting Optimized Material Properties for Tailored Heat Treated Blanks
Aluminum alloys have great potential for lightweight construction. In order to achieve an optimized properties distribution for the forming operation and to enhance the formability of aluminum alloys, so called Tailored Heat Treated Blanks (THTB) are developed. In this context, this paper is about the local precipitation hardening of sheet metals for the application of THTB. By using a specific, short-term heat treatment via conductive heating plates the thermal induced hardening of the fast hardenable alloy AA6181PX is quantified and qualified. Considering the processibility of the local precipitation hardening for THTB, a process window for the heat treatment parameters is presented allowing a precise setting of the mechanical material properties.