New possibilities for intense plastic deformation of aluminium alloys on a special CEC press

The new machine for deformation of metals and alloys by Cyclic Extrusion Compression method has been presented. The special, 600 kN capacity press was designed and build to deform materials by the CEC way. The press is equipped by microprocessor control system for hydraulic steering and measurement of the forces exerted by tools. The microstructure of AlMgSi (6082) samples deformed by new CEC press showed the nanometric features such as dimension of grains below 100 nm and large disorientation between nanograins. The nanostructure was found after the 24 cycles of the CEC (ϕ = 16). The simulation of plastic flow in CEC process was performed by a DEFORM software. The process has been modelled in relation to the technically pure aluminium and 6082 aluminium alloys deformed with the reduction of sample diameter from 10 to 8.5 mm and next increase from 8.5 to 10 mm in a single CEC cycle. It was found that at suitably selected values of counterforce the tensile circumferential stresses occurred behind the matrix where radial extrusion took place. Increasing the level of hydrostatic pressure it was possible to prevent an increase of the dangerous tensile stresses. Based on the data from numerical simulation of the CEC processes a special diagram has been prepared, which facilitates suitable choice of the counterforce level.