Microstructures of the Commercial

7075 AI Alloy in the T651 and T7 Tempers

J.K. PARK and A.J. ARDELL

The microstructures of the commercial 7075 A1 alloy in the peak aged (T651) and overaged (T7)
tempers were studied using transmission elect/on microscopy. The microstructure of 7075-T651 is
characterized predominantly by the presence of a fine dispersion of the .1' transition phase; the
primarily plate-shaped .1' particles have diameters ranging from 3 to 10 nm. The microstructure of
7075-T7 mainly consists of a bimodal size distribution of r/phase variants, i.e., plate-shaped .1~ and
'12 particles ranging from 12.5 to 30 nm in diameter and finer rh particles 5 to 10 nm in diameter. The
r/ transition phase is identified as having a hexagonal crystal structure with lattice parameters,
a = 0.496 nm and c = 1.403 nm. The maximum hardness of the 7075 alloy is believed to arise
mainly from the fine dispersion of small .1' particles.

I. INTRODUCTION perature range is coherent and has a different c / a ratio, with

THE aging characteristics of pure ternary Al-Zn-Mg alloys
have been studied extensively due to the technical im-
portance of this system. Much of the effort has concentrated
on elucidating the nature of the precipitate microstructures
(i.e., their morphology, distribution, and crystallography)
formed during aging, with the ultimate aim of understanding
the effect of microstructure on mechanical behavior. The
results of early X-ray studies ~-6 provided evidence for the
existence of solute-rich clusters, spherical G. P. zones, and
the .1' transition phase, from which it was deduced that the
aging sequence at temperatures below 190 °C 7'8 is
a ~ G. P. zones ~ .1' ~ .1
The equilibrium r/phase, MgZn2, has the hexagonal crys-
tal structure (C14) with a = 0.521 nm and c = 0.860 nm. 9
Nine different orientation relationships with the matrix have
been reported, the most frequently observed being 1°,11in the
classification scheme of GjCnnes and Simensen, 1°
Type 1: ( 0.0).1,11 (O01)h,; (00-1).1,11 (ll0)A~
Type 2: (00" 1).1211(1]-I)Ai; (10.0)*1~ll(ll0)Al
Type 4: (TR'0)r/411 (1]-I)AL; (00" 1).1/411 (ll0)At
In addition, the T phase, (A1Zn)49Mg32, which has a cubic
crystal structure, can form above - 1 9 0 °C. 6'~2
Spherical G. P. zones are usually the first decomposition
product at low temperatures (usually -<75 °C) of super-
saturated A1-Zn-Mg alloys whose compositions lie within
the A1-MgZn2 phase field. The X-ray results of Graf 3
and Schmalzried and Gerold6 indicated the existence of or-
dered G.P. zones in an intermediate aging temperature
range (usually 75 to 150 °C). Mondolfo et al.~ suggested
that initial G. P. zone formation is followed by the formation
of the r/transition phase having a hexagonal crystal struc-
ture with a = 0.496 nm, c = 0.868 nm. Graf5 reported
that the .1' phase that forms in the intermediate aging tem-
J. K. PARK, Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology,
Seoul, Korea, is currently Visiting Assistant Research Engineer in, and
A.J. ARDELL is Chairman of, the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
Manuscript submitted December 21, 1982.
a = 0.496 nm, but with c = 1.403 nm. Graf2'4 also sug-
gested that the G. R zones are an initial decomposition
product only during aging at low temperatures. On increas-
ing the aging temperature to the range 100 to 130 °C, the
.1' transition phase was found to form initially, without
evidence of prior G. P. zone formation.
More recent studies using transmission electron micros-
copy (TEM) have yielded additional information on the
details of the aging process. Lorimer and Nicholson, 7'j3 in
their general model of two-step aging, proposed that G. R
zones act as nuclei for the formation of the r/ transition
phase. Alternatively, Pashley et al. 14 proposed that the .1'
transition phase can be formed directly from stable clusters
(which are probably, but not necessarily, G.P. zones).
Thackery, 1~having found no evidence of the presence of r/
in an aged A1-6Zn-2Mg alloy, suggested that G. R zones
could transform directly to the equilibrium "Ophase. Gj0nnes
and Simensen ~° observed that .1' forms during the early
stage of aging of an A1-5.8Zn-I.IMg alloy at 130 °C and
150 °C. Its structure was identified as monoclinic, with
a = b = 0.497 nm, c = 0.554 nm. However, in sub-
sequent X-ray work by Auld and Cousland ~5 r / w a s identi-
fied as having a hexagonal structure, with a = 0.489 nm
and c = 1.374 nm. Gjcnnes and Simensen ~° and DeArdo
and Simensen 16 found that the .1~ type, as well as .1', form
directly, without prior G. P. zone formation, from the very
beginning of aging at temperatures from 100 to 180 °C.
Embury and Nicholson ~2 observed, in the early stages of
aging, small spherical or plate-shaped particles imaged by
structure factor contrast and considered them to be either
ordered G. R zones or hexagonal particles. Gj0nnes and
Simensen ~° observed similar contrast and interpreted it as
due to small plate shaped r/ particles rather than G. R
zones. Lyman and Vander Sande ~7 studied the early stages
of aging using high resolution electron microscopy: They
also observed small coherent spherical particles before the
appearance of plate-shaped .1' particles from 70 to 100 °C,
and suggested that they could be hexagonal ordered zones.
Little work has been done on the-characterization of the
microstructure of the commercial 7000 series A1 alloys.
Adler et al., ~8 Delasi and Adler, ~9 and Adler and Delasi 2°
studied the microstructure of 7075-A1 using TEM; they cor-
related these results with studies of the stress-corrosion

METALLURGICALTRANSACTIONSA VOLUME14A,OCTOBER1983-1957
cracking (SCC) characteristics ~8and with the results of dif-
ferential scanning colorimetry ( D S C ) , 19'2° which was used
to investigate the precipitate dissolution process. They re-
ported that G.P. zones were the predominant precipitates
in the T651 microstructure, and that the T73 microstructure
contained mainly 7' particles.
The results on the pure A1-Zn-Mg system indicate the
existence of considerable controversy on the nature of the
precipitates that form in the early stages of aging. As far as
the microstructure of the commercial 7075 A1 alloy is con-
cerned, no detailed TEM studies have been reported. The
purpose of the present work was to determine in detail the
microstructure of the commercial 7075 alloy in the peak-
aged (T651) and overaged (T7) tempers. A detailed in-
vestigation was deemed necessary because of the recently
reported improvement in the resistance of 7075 to SCC as a
consequence of a new heat treatment, 2~ which has been re-
ferred to as a "retrogression and reaging" treatment (RRA).
Since we are investigating in detail the microstructural
changes that accompany the RRA heat treatment, the results
of the present work provide a necessary basis for compari-
son with the microstructures in RRA-treated material. The
results of our investigations of the microstructure of 7075-
RRA will be reported separately in a forthcoming paper.
Since the present study was limited to a detailed investi-
gation of two microstructures, the results add very little to
the controversies surrounding the details of the precipitation
sequence. Nevertheless, we believe that the characterization
of the various phases and variants present in these two
microstructures is definitive, thereby eliminating confusion
concerning this particular issue in A1-7075 and probably in
pure A1-Zn-Mg alloys whose compositions lie within the
A1-MgZn2 phase field, although the relatively large Cu con-
tent of the commercial alloy might affect the morphology
and crystal structure of the precipitates in a minor way
(there is no evidence that the effect of Cu is significant in
this regard).
II. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
The material used in this study was commercial A1 7075
which was received in the T651 condition in the form of
extruded bar 30 × 100 x 1100 ram.* L-ST sections were
*We are grateful to the Lockheed California Co. for supplying us this
material, the composition of which is, in wt pct: 5.48 to 5.50 Zn; 2.38 to
2.40 Mg; 1.53 to 1.57 Cu; 0.21 Cr; 0.26 Fe; 0.12 Si; 0.03 Mn; 0.03 Ti.
cut into thin strips 0.25 mm in thickness using a spark
cutting machine.
For the T7 temper, the strips were first solution-treated at
465 --- 2 °C for one hour in a salt bath, water-quenched, and
immediately aged in a silicone oil bath controlled to -+ 1 °C.
The two-step T7 treatment consisted of aging the samples
for eight hours at 100 °C, water quenching, and sub-
sequently aging at 165 °C for 24 hours. This treatment is
equivalent to a T73 temper for material in sheet form.
Thin foils for TEM were prepared using disks, 3 mm in
diameter, which were punched from the strips and mechani-
cally ground to 0.12 mm in thickness. These were first
polished, using jet electrolytic polishing to form dimples on
the center of both faces, in a solution of 10 pct HNO3,
90 pct H20 at 20 V at room temperature. Final thinning was
1958--VOLUME 14A, OCTOBER 1983
performed by conventional electropolishing at - 2 0 °C in an
electrolyte of 30 pct HNO3, 70 pct CH3OH at 15 V. Some
of the dimpled samples were polished using ion-milling to
avoid the highly variable oxidation effects that can occur
during electrolytic polishing. The applied potential during
ion milling was 4.6 keV, with an Ar + ion probe current of
25 /xA from each of the two guns. TEM was performed
at 100 keV using a JEOL 100CX TEMSCAN electron
microscope equipped with a side-entry goniometric double-
tilting stage.
The technique described by Gj~nnes and Simensen '° and
DeArdo and Simensen ~6 was used to identify the precipi-
tates. When several types of precipitates are present simulta-
neously and the structure and expected orientation of the
preripitates are known, it is useful to construct the electron
diffraction patterns for given zone axes of the matrix. This
is done by taking into account all possible variants of the
given orientation relationship and comparing the predicted
pattern to that experimentally observed. Each type of pre-
cipitate can be identified by analyzing a series of dark-field
images taken using various reflections in the indexed dif-
fraction patterns.
III. RESULTS
Typical bright-field images of 7075 A1 in the T651 and T7
tempers are illustrated in Figure 1. The particles are, in
general, plate-shaped, although the smaller particles appear
to be spherical in shape, particularly in the T651 micro-
structure. The sizes in the T651 microstructure are, in
general, small, while those in the T7 microstructure are
relatively large. The concentration of particles appears to be
high in the T651 microstructure compared to that in the T7
microstructure. Some of the particles in the T651 micro-
structure (Figure l(a)) show a line of no contrast which
is perpendicular to the direction of the diffraction vector,
suggesting that there are coherency strains associated with
the precipitates.
The major part of this investigation consisted of analyses
of many electron diffraction patterns from samples in both
heat-treatment conditions. The patterns from the samples in
the T651 and T7 tempers contain many reflections in com-
mon, although the reflections are invariably more intense in
patterns from samples in the T7 temper. Though we discuss
the T651 temper first, it may be helpful to refer to the T7
diffraction patterns for verification.
The electron diffraction pattern of a sample in the T651
temper, taken with the beam parallel to the zone axis
B = [112], is shown in Figure 2(a). Relatively intense
spots typically appear at 1/3 (220) (at A), 2/3 (220) (at B),
- 1 / 3 (131) (at C), - 1 / 3 (531) (at D), and - 1 / 6 (9]-5)
(at E). Weaker reflections are also visible inside 2/3 (220)
(near B), and (222) (at F). Two spots near 1/2 (1]1), sym-
metrically placed on either side of this position, are usually
present, but their intensities are very weak in the T651 case.
The characteristic feature of the diffraction pattern in
Figure 2(a) consists of the appearance of continuous streak-
ing, parallel to (lTD. These streaks are usually associated
with intensity maxima, in agreement with the observation of
GjCnnes and Simensen m in a pure A1-Zn-Mg alloy; the
general features of the intensity maxima also appear to be
METALLURGICAL TRANSACTIONS A