Study on AA7010 aluminum alloy processed by mechanical alloying

Mechanical alloying is one of advanced methods in producing alloy and composites materials. In this paper، AA7010 alloy was produced from elemental powders through mechanical alloying under argon atmosphere. Particle size measurements showed The results showed that fine and equiaxed particles with mean particle size of 6μm were formed after 28 h milling. The equiaxed particles observed by SEM after mechanical alloying. X-ray diffraction results for milled powders showed that Al crystallite size reduced to 53nm. Different intermetallic compounds including MgZn2، Mg2Zn11، Al2Cu and Al2CuMg were formed in 24 h mechanically alloyed AA7010 powder after annealing treatment at 550 °C in argon atmosphere. The microharness of mechanically alloyed powders was increased with respect to milling time. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis on AA7010 aluminum alloy also indicated that melting point has reduced to 647 °