Aluminum alloy heat treatment

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Non-heat treatment-strengthened and heat-treat-strengthened wrought alloys may be prepared by complete annealing to their softest, most ductile, and most workable state, designated by "O". The strain-hardened product in this processed state is usually recrystallized, but hot-worked products may remain unrecrystallized. Heat-strengthenable alloys are fully annealed and the solution is fully precipitated, thus preventing natural aging. For aluminum alloys that cannot be strengthened by heat treatment, such as pure aluminum and rust-proof aluminum, due to the low content of alloy elements, such alloys can generally only be strengthened by cold work hardening. This alloy, strengthened by cold plastic deformation, can be softened by high-temperature annealing. If it is necessary to improve the plasticity while also partially retaining the strengthening obtained by cold deformation (that is, to obtain a semi-cold work hardening state), low-temperature annealing below 300°C can be used.