The Effect of Intermediate Annealing Condition on Recrystallization Behavior in Continuous Cast Al-Mn Alloy

Favorable features such as finer particles and supersaturated solid solution are characterized in continuous casting. In this study, difference of recrystallization behavior was mainly evaluated on two intermediate annealing conditions in continuous cast Al-Mn alloy. One annealing condition was air furnace annealing which corresponds to batch type annealing and is conventionally used to anneal aluminum alloys. Another one was salt bath annealing which simulates CAL type annealing, which is characterized by shorter holding time with rapid heating and cooling. With consideration for application to fin stock in heat exchanger, heat treatment simulating brazing at 600°C was carried out on cold rolled sheets after respective intermediate annealing. After the brazing heat treatment, superior tensile strength and coarser grain structure were attractively obtained with the salt bath intermediate annealed fin. This tensile strength was correlated with much finer particles and more solid solution confirmed after the salt bath intermediate annealing. The coarser grain structure would be brought by changing in recovery and recrystallization behavior during brazing heat treatment.