Precipitation-hardened aluminium alloys typically obtain their strength by forming second-phase particles, which, however, often have a negative effect on formability. To enable both lightweight construction and forming of complex parts such as body panels, high strength and formability are required simultaneously. Cluster hardening is a promising approach to achieve this. Here, we show that short thermal spikes, denoted as up-quenching, increase aging kinetics, which we attribute to the repeated process of vacancies being formed at high temperatures and retained when cooled to lower temperatures. Combined with further heat treatment, the up-quenching process promotes rapid and extensive cluster formation in Al-Mg-Si alloys, which in turn generates significant strengthening at industrially relevant heat treatment time scales. The high elongation values also observed are attributed to reduced solute depleted zones along grain boundaries.

沉淀硬化铝合金通常通过形成第二相颗粒来获得其强度，然而，这通常会对成形性产生负面影响。为了实现轻量化和车身面板等复杂部件的成型，同时需要高强度和可成型性。集群强化是实现这一目标的一种很有前景的方法。在这里，我们展示了表示为上淬火的短热峰值会增加老化动力学，我们将其归因于在高温下形成空位并在冷却到较低温度时保留的重复过程。结合进一步的热处理，上淬火过程促进了 Al-Mg-Si 合金中快速和广泛的团簇形成，从而在工业相关的热处理时间尺度上产生显着的强化。