Metall. Res. Technol.

Vol, No (2017)
© EDP Sciences, 2017 Metallurgical Research
DOI: 10.1051/metal/2017024 &
Technology
Available online at:
www.metallurgical-research.org

REGULAR ARTICLE

Potential of horizontal direct chill cast EN AW 6082 rods

as forging stock in the manufacture of light weight
suspension components
Yucel Birol1,*, Emre Gokcil2, and Seracettin Akdi2
1
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
2
R&D Centre, AYD Steering and Suspension Parts, Selcuklu, Konya, Turkey

Received: 6 January 2017 / Accepted: 20 March 2017

Abstract. Commercial EN AW 6082 rods cast at less than 50 mm in diameter via horizontal casting appear to
be adequate candidate as forging stock for the manufacture of small size automotive suspension components.
Cast forging stock relies entirely on the forging deformation to develop the fibering known to be very beneficial
for superior dynamic and impact properties. Hence, the forging die design is critical to ensure the sufficient
amount and suitable orientation of fibering across the section of the component. Forgings produced from cast
stock, submitted to an artificial ageing cycle directly after the forging step offer superior fatigue and impact
energy values with respect to their counterparts processed with a solution heat treatment (SHT). The superior
fatigue and impact energy values of the former are attributed to the particle characteristics; i.e. the spacing of
void forming particles in these forgings is relatively smaller than in forgings processed with a separate SHT. The
coalescence of voids at these particles eventually occurs at smaller loads and deteriorates toughness.
Keywords: aluminium alloys / hardness measurement / mechanical characterization / light microscopy /
thermomechanical processing / age hardening

1 Introduction
Unlike castings, aluminium forgings are always porosity
free thus taking advantage of well established heat
treatment processes to improve mechanical properties in
heat treatable aluminium alloys [1]. When forged and heat
treated, common aluminium alloys exhibit a far superior
strength to weight ratio than many grades of steel. The
distinct advantage of forged aluminium components stands
out when the forging is designed to provide optimum grain
structure to suit the application improving both static and
cyclic properties [2]. Optimum mechanical properties are
obtained in the fibre direction.
One of the most popular applications of aluminium
forgings is the automotive suspension components [3]. The
material of choice for this application is often the age-
hardening EN AW 6082 alloy because of its excellent
combination of mechanical properties and corrosion resis-
tance [4,5]. The EN AW 6082 forging stock is typically
produced with the extrusion of direct chill (DC) cast billets to
reduce its diameter to forging stock dimensions. While
extruded bar is the standard forging stock in the manufacture
* e-mail: yucel.birol@deu.edu.tr
of long parts like control arms, cast forging stock has also
received attention [6–13]. Casting-forging route is regarded
suitable only for large section forgings since the DC cast
billets are seldom produced at less than 150 mm diameter.
Lack of commercial cast forging stock in small diameters
makes an intermediate extrusion process inevitable for
relatively small forging components.
Horizontal direct chill (HDC) casting units are techni-
cally capable of producing smaller diameter aluminium alloy
rods either for extrusion stock or as foundry alloy ingot. Such
rods at suitable diameters (d < 50 mm) are thus commercial-
ly available. Their much smaller size renders an extrusion
step to reduce their diameter to forging stock unnecessary.
The present work was undertaken to investigate the
potential of HDC EN AW 6082 rods at less than 50 mm in
diameter for the manufacture of EN AW 6082 alloy
suspension components. Recently, it has been shown that
a forging process cycle without a solution heat treatment
(SHT) offers a more uniform structure across the section of
the EN AW 6082 alloy forgings with substantial benefits in
mechanical properties [14]. It is of great interest to find out if
the processing of cast forging stock without a separate SHT
offers the same benefits as for extruded forging stock. Hence,
the forging campaigns conducted on an industrial scale in the
present investigation were planned with and wihout a SHT.
2 Y. Birol et al.: Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017)
2 Experimental
Commercial EN AW 6082 alloy rods produced with the
HDC casting process with a diameter of 42 mm were used
for industrial scale forging experiments. The chemical
composition of these rods were measured with a commer-
cial optical emission spectroscopy unit and are listed in
Table 1. The as-cast rods were first submitted to a
homogenization treatment to eliminate the interdendritic
segregation. This was an 8-h treatment at a temperature of
570 °C followed by furnace cooling. Half of the homogenized
bars were preheated to approximately 520 °C and were
forged on a 1600 ton forging press into suspension parts
before they were immediately quenched in water. The
forged components were subsequently solutionized at
530 °C for 4 h and quenched in water before they were
artificially aged at 180 °C for 8 h (Group 1, Fig. 1a). The
second group of suspension components were processed in a
similar manner. However, several revisions were imple-
mented in the preheating, forging and post-forging
operations to ensure sufficient Mg and Si solute levels
before the artificial ageing treatment. The round bars were
preheated to 560 °C, a higher temperature with respect to
that employed in Group 1 and were forged into the same
suspension components with the same forging parameters.
These forgings were quenched in water right after the
forging operation and were directly artificially aged at
180 °C for 8 h (Group 2, Fig. 1b).
Samples sectioned from the as-received horizontally
cast and homogenized rods and samples from the
artificially aged forgings were prepared with standard
metallographic techniques: ground with SiC paper,
polished with 3 mm diamond paste and finished with
colloidal silica. Their microstructures were examined after
etching with a 0.5% HF solution using a Nikon MA200
model optical microscope to identify the particle features.
The grain structures across different sections of the
forgings were checked after etching in a solution of %32
HCl, %32 HNO3, %32 H2O and %4 HF. Sections from the
forging stock, forged and heat treated components were
also anodised in Barker’s solution, 5 mL HBF4 (48%) in
200 mL water, and then examined with an optical
microscope under polarized light. X-ray diffraction
(XRD) patterns were recorded with a Rigaku D/Max
2200/PC Diffractometer equipped with CuKa radiation to
assist in the identification of the intermetallic particles.
Hardness of the forgings was measured with a Brinell
Hardness Tester under a load of 250 kgf using 5 mm
diameter steel ball with a dwell time of 10 s. The tensile
tests were performed using a screw driven ZWICK/
ROELL Z250 tensile testing machine in air at room
temperature. The cross-head speed was 1 mm/min. The
strain was measured with an extensometer attached to the
sample and with a measuring length of 36 mm. The 0.2%
proof stress was reported as the yield stress. Samples
processed with and without a SHT were tested for their
toughness by using a 300 J pendulum impact testing
machine (DMC 6705CE, UK) in the Charpy mode at an
impact velocity of 5.24 m/s. Fatigue tests were conducted
on a MTS Landmark desktop model fatigue testing unit
which is capable of operating at 100 Hz with a maximum
load of 15 kN. The fatigue test samples were prepared
according to ASTM-E466 and cycled at a stress amplitude
of 175 MPa, at a frequency of 30 Hz with a minimum to
maximum stress ratio of
1. The fatigue test results were
reported as the average number of cycles to fracture from 5
different fatigue tests of the same group. The location of
samples machined from the forgings for the tensile, fatigue
and impact tests is described in detail in [14].
3 Results and discussion
The macrostructure across the transverse section of the
HDC cast rod is shown in Figure 2a. The section is free from
flaws, porosity and shrinkage. The grain structure is
uniform across the section and the average grain diameter
is estimated to be 99.5 ± 7.1 mm (Fig. 2b). These features
are typical of vertical direct chill (VDC) casting and show
no unanticipated differences in the HDC cast counterpart.
It is worth noting, however, that the present cast stock
reveals a substantial level of interdendritic segregation,
quite untypical of VDC cast billets (Fig. 3). These
segregation patterns cannot be accounted for by gravity
effects since they appear to be quite symmetrical with
respect to the casting axis. Considering that the HDC cast
rods are cast at much smaller diameters than the VDC cast
billets, the marked segregation in the former is rather
unexpected and needs to be eliminated before any hot
working operation. It is also inferred from the extent of
precipitation across the section of the cast rods that the
cooling rate following solidification has been rather slow.
This is consistent with the hardness of the horizontally cast
rod, 60 ± 0.8 HB, which is considerably higher than the soft
temper value.
A homogenization cycle was employed to eliminate the
segregation of the cast stock. Typical microstructures near
the edge and at the center of the homogenized rods are
shown in Figure 4a and b, respectively. The microstruc-
tural features of the section are generally similar. The
homogenized rod is characterized with coarse Fe-based
intermetallic particles, intermediate size dispersoids and a
very fine dispersion of Mg-Si precipitates. The precipitate
free zones mark the grain boundary network. The coarse
compound particles and intermediate size dispersoids
(Fig. 4) were identified by XRD analysis to be cubic
ac-Al12(Fe,Mn,Cr)3Si particles and a fine dispersion of
Mg2Si precipitates (Fig. 5). Mn and Cr is responsible for the
predominance of the cubic phase over the monoclinic
b-Al5FeSi variety and the homogenization anneal certainly
must have helped with the b-Al5FeSi ! ac-Al12(Fe,Mn,
Cr)3Si transformation [15]. Hardness of the homogenized
material was measured to be 60.1 ± 1 HB, implying a slow
cool down following homogenization retaining a fraction of
Mg and Si in solution.
Microstructures of the Group 1 forgings near the edge
and at the centre of the section of the suspension
component are shown in Figure 6a, c and b, d, respectively.
In the latter group, the precipitate-free boundaries
delineate equiaxed dendritic grains near the edge of the
section (Fig. 6a and c). The microstructure at the centre of
 Y. Birol et al.: Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017)
casng homogenizaon preheang
forging
temperature
700 °C
570 °C quenching
520 °C
casng homogenizaon Preheang-forging
temperature
700 °C quenching
570 °C
560 °C
Fig. 1. The forging cycles employed (a) with and (b) without a separate solution heat treatment.
Table 1. Chemical composition of the EN AW 6082 alloy forging stock (wt.%).
Si Fe Mn Mg
1.18 0.224 0.7476 0.707
the section, on the other hand, is markedly different. A very
dense dispersion of particles is the predominant feature
with no evidence of precipitate-free zones (Fig. 6b and d).
The particles seem to be aligned at still higher resolutions
(Fig. 6d) due to the plastic flow associated with hot forging.
Surprisingly, the forgings that have been submitted to a
SHT, reveal almost identical features (Fig. 7). It should be
noted, however, that the number density of the particles is
markedly higher in Group 1 forgings.
The transverse section of the forgings from Group 1 and
Group 2 look very similar at overview magnifications
(Fig. 8). There is no evidence for coarse surface grains that
form particularly during the SHT of forgings produced
from extruded stock [7]. Such peripheral coarse surface
grains are known to degrade the surface quality and reduce
the impact toughness of the high strength extrusions and
forgings [16,17]. Micrographs taken from the same sections,
from the edge to the centre, after anodising are shown in
Figure 9b and c, respectively. The section grain structure of
the cast rod is also included to evidence the extent and
distribution of fibering upon forging operation (Fig. 9a).
They are consistent with the metallographic analysis of
transverse sections. It is evident from Figure 9b and c that
the grains at the edge of the section are predominantly
equiaxed in both groups of forgings. The surface grains of
3
soluonizing a)Group 1
530 °C
ageing 180 °C
me
b) Group 2
ageing 180 °C
me
Cu Cr Ti Zn Al
0.065 0.142 0.038 0.01 96.79
the cast stock have apparently not been deformed to an
appreciable extent during the forging process. The friction
in the contact zone between the forging die and the work
piece leads to a sticking that avoids the free plastic flow of
the surface grains.
The shape factor of the grains were estimated and were
plotted on a semi-logarithmic scale as a function of depth
from the surface (Fig. 10). It is inferred from Figure 10 that
the surface region that covers approximately 20% of the
mid-section has not been affected by the forging deforma-
tion. From this point on, grains are gradually replaced with
pancake shaped grains while traversing towards the centre.
Finally, the grains at the centre of the section are fully
fibrous. The shape factor increases to approximately 20
near the centre. These features are almost identical in
Group 1 and Group 2 forgings in spite of a high temperature
SHT after forging in the former. The SHT that has a
marked effect on the section grain structures in the forging
of suspension components from extruded stock does not
appear to have any effect in the case of cast forging stock. It
has been shown earlier that SHT is the single most critical
step of the entire thermomechanical processing of extruded
forging stock with a very negative impact on the grain
structure [6,7]. The only step that can introduce deforma-
tion to the strain-free cast forging stock and form the
4 Y. Birol et al.: Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017)

a b a

1cm 500μm

Fig. 2. (a) Section photo and the (b) grain structure of the
horizontally cast EN AW 6082 rod.

20μm
a
b
!

200µm 20μm
b Fig. 4. Microstructure of homogenized EN AW rod near the edge
(a) and at the centre (b) of the section.

Al(111) Al(200
Intensity (a.u.)

: αc-Al12(Fe,Mn,Cr)3Si
: β-Mg2Si

100µm 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
2θ (degrees)
Fig. 3. Dendritic segregation of the horizontally cast EN AW
6082 rod (a, b). Fig. 5. X-ray diffraction spectrum of the homogenized material.

fibrous grains in the entire processing cycle is the forging
step. It is then fair to conclude from the similarity of the
structural features of Group 1 and 2 forgings that the
subsequent SHT fails to renew the grain structure due to
the high levels of Mn and Cr in the present alloy. There is
no evidence to claim that recrystallization has taken place
during the entire forging cycle. The cast forging stock,
having additionally been homogenized, is entirely free of
any retained deformation, unlike the extruded forging
stock. The hardness profiles across the section of forgings
(Fig. 11) are uniform across the section and a hardness drop
near the edge that would signal such a softening process is
not evident. In summary, the section structure of
suspension components forged from HDC cast rods with
and without a subsequent SHT is claimed to be adequate
with no coarse surface grains and with substantial degree of
fibering that is known to be very advantageous in terms of
dynamic and impact properties. The fibering of the grains
 Y. Birol et al.: Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017) 5

a b

100µm 100µm

c d

20µm 20µm
Fig. 6. Microstructure of the Group 1 suspension component near the edge (a, c) and at the centre (b, d) of the transverse section.

and its alignment with the loading of the component can be
improved further by further optimization of the forging die
design. This work is underway at AYD tool shop.
The mechanical properties of the forgings produced
with (Group 1) and without a SHT (Group 2) prior to
artificial ageing are listed in Table 2. The tensile properties
are essentially similar. This is not surprising considering
the nearly identical microstructural features of the two
groups (Figs. 6 and 7). It is worth noting, however, that the
tensile properties are relatively superior with respect to the
suspension components produced from extruded stock
using the same processing cycles employed in the present
work [14]. Hardness of the Group 1 and 2 suspension
components were measured to be 117 ± 1 and 116 ± 4 HB,
respectively, and suggest that the elimination of the SHT in
the processing cycle does not degrade the age hardening
potential of the present alloy owing to the fine tuning the
preheating and the post hot forging operations.
In contrast to tensile properties, there are marked
differences in the fatigue lives and the Charpy impact
energy values of the two groups. The improvement in the
number of cycles to fracture under cyclic loading and the
impact fracture energy of Group 2 samples is striking. Both
the number of cycles to fracture and the impact energy
values of Group 2 forgings, processed without a SHT, are
nearly twice as those of Group 1 forgings. Such improve-
ments in dynamic and impact properties in spite of
comparable hardness and tensile properties is consistent
with a previous report [14,18]. It is fair to conclude that the
benefits of a forging process without a separate SHT [14],
has been confirmed also for the cast forging stock in the
present work.
It has been reported that forgings of the same alloy, in the
same temper, with comparable hardness and tensile proper-
ties can show markedly different fracture behaviour, depend-
ing on the intermetallic particle characteristics [18–24]. An
increase in the spacing of intermetallic particles delays void
nucleation to higher loads and improves toughness while
smaller inter-particle spacing accelerates fracture through
the formation of coarse voids [25]. The spacing of particles is
relatively smaller in Group 1 forgings than in Group 2. This is
confirmed with the image analysis of section micrographs
that evidence the difference between the particle character-
istics (Fig. 12). The total number of particles in unit area of
6 Y. Birol et al.: Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017)

a b

100µm 100µm

c d

20µm 20µm
Fig. 7. Microstructure of the Group 2 suspension component near the edge (a, c) and at the centre (b, d) of the transverse section.

a b

1mm

Fig. 8. Overview of the section of (a) Group 1 and (b) Group 2 suspension component.
 Y. Birol et al.: Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017) 7

500μm

500μm

500μm

Fig. 9. Grain structures across the section of (a) cast rod, (b) Group 1 and (c) Group 2 suspension components.

130

2,0 120
Group 1
110
log (grain shape factor)

Group 2
hardness (HB)

1,5
100

90
1,0
80

0,5 70
Group 1
edge centre 60 Group 2
0,0 50
0,0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
fraction mid-section depth from surface (mm)
Fig. 10. Change in the shape factor of grains across the section of Fig. 11. Change in hardness across the section of (a) Group 1 and
suspension components with depth from the edge of the section. (b) Group 2 suspension components.

Table 2. Mechanical properties of suspension components produced from horizontally cast EN AW rods with and
without a SHT.

Group Process s Y (MPa) s UTS (MPa) A50 (%) Hardness (HB) Cycles to fracture (Nf) Impact energy (J)
Group 1 w/SHT 329 356 10.9 117 ± 1 125,269 ± 97,570 9±1
Group 2 w/o SHT 340 372 10.1 116 ± 4 300,736 ± 206,025 17 ± 3
8 Y. Birol et al.: Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017)
a) GROUP 1
Fig. 12. Image analysis results of (a) Group 1 and (b) Group 2 suspension components.
Group 1 forgings is markedly higher leading to a smaller inter-
particle spacing. The coalescence of voids at these particles
eventually takes smaller loads thus deteriorating toughness.
4 Conclusions
Commercial EN AW 6082 rods cast at less than 50 mm via
horizontal casting appear to be adequate candidate as
forging stock for the manufacture of small size automotive
suspension components.
Cast forging stock relies entirely on the forging deforma-
tion to develop the fibering known to be very beneficial for
superior dynamic and impact properties. Hence, the forging
die design is critical to ensure the sufficient amount and
suitable fibering across the section of the component.
Forgings produced from cast stock, submitted to an
artificial ageing cycle directly after the forging step offer
superior fatigue and impact energy values with respect to
their counterparts processed with a SHT. This is in
agreement with a very recent study of the authors where
forging produced from extruded stock were found to behave
in a similar fashion. Substantial processing cost savings,
making aluminium alloys even a more attractive replace-
ment, must not be overlooked.
The superior fatigue and impact energy values of the
Group 2 forgings are attributed to the particle characteristics
of the two groups of forgings. The spacing of void forming
particles is relatively smaller in Group 1 forgings than in
Group 2. The coalescence of voids at these particles
eventually occurs at smaller loads and deteriorate toughness.
It is a pleasure to thank Dr. O. Ertugrul (DEU) for his help with
the Charpy impact tests and M.A. Guvenc and O. Kartlar (AYD)
for their help with the fatigue tests and metallographic work.
b) GROUP 2
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Cite this article as: Yucel Birol, Emre Gokcil, Seracettin Akdi, Potential of horizontal direct chill cast EN AW 6082 rods as
forging stock in the manufacture of light weight suspension components, Metall. Res. Technol. Vol, No (2017)