Asymmetric cold rolling of an AA 5xxx aluminium alloy

Asymmetric rolling -a known industrial practice, but a rarely used metal-forming process -was applied to the EN AW 5454 aluminium alloy.The improvement in the technological parameters and the different mechanical properties was assessed by comparing the symmetric and asymmetric rolling procedures.The study was carried out with numerical simulations, mechanical tests and metallographic analyses.More homogeneous material with finer crystal grains and a much lower planar anisotropy was produced with asymmetric rolling and annealing to the soft condition compared to that with symmetric rolling.The textures of the asymmetrically rolled samples and the volume fraction of the separate texture components were different and more suitable for the heat treatment than the textures of the symmetrically rolled samples.The study revealed that the ski effect or a bended part of the rolled workpiece appeared during the numerical simulations as well as during laboratory rolling, but only with the asymmetric rolling.