Obtaining High-Strength Aluminum Sheets from Powder by Friction-Assisted Lateral Extrusion

Consolidating powder to obtain high strength materials with a dense structure is challenging due to the lack of bonding between the powder particles. This study aims to overcome this challenge by using an effective and efficient processing called Friction-Assisted Lateral Extrusion. In this work, both Al1050-bulk and Al1050-powder were processed by the FALEP process at room temperature in a single-step deformation. The microstructure and texture transformations and the improvement in mechanical properties of the Al1050-bulk and Al1050-powder samples were investigated. The results showed that the Al1050-powder sample was successfully consolidated at room temperature with a high density and high efficiency. Although the microstructure of the bulk processed sample was significantly refined, its grain size was still larger than that of the powder-consolidated samples. The smaller grain size and the presence of the oxide particles in the consolidated samples, acting as obstacles hindering dislocation motion, could have resulted in their superior mechanical strength compared with that of the bulk processed sample.