The thermal stability of a fine-grained (FG) aluminum wire has been studied in Al-0.6Mg-Zr-Sc alloys with various scandium and zirconium contents. Specimens were obtained by induction casting followed by cold deformation. The FG alloys have been demonstrated to have high thermal stability of the structure and properties due to the annealing pretreatment (320 °C, 2 h, before drawing), which results in deposition of Al₃(ScxZr1-x) intermetallic particles. It has been determined that following a prolonged annealing treatment (400 °C, 100 h), the alloys retain a uniform fine-grained structure with an average grain size of 2.4⁻2.8 μm whereas their microhardness measures 405⁻440 MPa.
Keywords: aluminum alloys; fine-grained structure; hardness; particles; scandium; thermal stability; zirconium.