To study the mechanism of age-hardening of magnesium rich aluminium-alloys, the following experiments were performed. Aluminium-magnesium alloy containing 10.65% Al (by wt.) was solution-treated at 420° for 50 hrs, then quenched in cold water. With these specimens, (1) changes in hardness, electrical resistance, and microscopic structures during aging at 100°, 125°, 150°, 175°, 200° and 250° were studied and also (2) changes in hardness, electrical resistance, specific gravity, thermal expansion and microscopic structures during heating from room temperature to 300° at the heating velocity of 1°C per min, were measured. The results are as follows: (1) The age-hardening of this alloy depends, principally, on strains caused by precipitation of δ-phase (intermetallic compound Al
3Mg
4) from super-saturated solid solution. Compared with those of magnesium rich zinc alloys, their strains are more remarkable and removal of them is more difficult. A slight hardening prior to precipitation is recognized. (2) According to changes in microscopic structures, precipitation takes place, at first, in the vicinity to grain boundaries and, after this stage has finished, begins at the remaining parts of the grains. This discontinuity decreases as the aging temperature becomes higher, and, at last, disappears. By overheating considerable softening is caused at the central part of grains, but, the softening is less apparent at parts adjacent to grain boundaries. The precipitation of this alloy belongs to the “discontinuous type”. The longer the aging-time, and the higher the aging temperature the coarser becomes the precipitate, that is, the sorbitic structure changes to the pearlitic structure.
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