Abstract
Age-hardenable Al-Mg-Si aluminium alloys (AA6xxx series) are used for car body applications where high formability and in-service strength are major requirements. One of the mostly used materials for such applications in Europe is currently the low Cu content AA6016 alloy, which contains approximately 0.4 wt.% of Mg and 1.0 wt.% of Si. The strengthening phase in this alloy is Mg₂Si in the form of small semi-coherent precipitates. Direct chill (DC) cast alloys are currently used in automotive skin panels and have been extensively studied during last years. Recently, the new technology of twin-roll casting (TRC) offered an alternative way of sheet manufacturing for automotive applications. In this paper, the influence of homogenization annealing on the mechanical response and microstructure evolution of a TRC AA6016 alloy was studied.

Key words
aluminium alloys, twin-roll casting, microstructure evolution, precipitation hardening

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