Precipitation behavior and the quenching sensitivity of a spray deposited Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr alloy during isothermal heat treatment have been studied systematically. Results demonstrate that both the hardness and the ultimate tensile strength of the studied alloy decreased with the isothermal treatment time at certain temperatures. More notably, the hardness decreases rapidly after the isothermal heat treatment. During isothermal heat treatment processing, precipitates readily nucleated in the medium-temperature zone (250-400 °C), while the precipitation nucleation was scarce in the low-temperature zone (<250 °C) and in the high-temperature zone (>400 °C). Precipitates with sizes of less than ten nanometers would contribute a significant increase in yield strength, while the ones with a larger size than 300 nm would contribute little strengthening effect. Quenching sensitivity is high in the medium-temperature zone (250-400 °C), and corresponding time-temperature-property (TTP) curves of the studied alloy have been established.
Keywords: aluminum alloys; microstructure; precipitation; spray deposition; strength.