INCREASING THE DRAWABILITY OF AA2014 AL-CU BY DIFFERENTIAL HEAT-TREATMENT

The limiting drawing ratio of an AA2014 AI-Cu alloy sheet has been inc reased from a value of 1.8 in uniform, annealed material to a value of 2.6 by the use of differential heat treatment. That treatment involve d setting up a transient thermal gradient to give a gradient of solid solution, which then led to a large strength gradient after quenching and aging. Both the heat treatment and the cup drawing process were mo deled to predict an optimum treatment. The finite-element modeling (FE M) method was used to simulate cup drawing, with a material descriptio n that included plastic anisotropy, which is known to have a significa nt influence on the process.