Effect of a commercial hard anodizing on the fatigue property of a 2014-T6 aluminium alloy

The effect of a commercial hard anodizing on the fatigue property of 2014 Al alloy which has been solution heat treated and age hardened prior to the hard anodizing of approximately 10 μm in thickness have been investigated. The results indicated that fatigue life in high stress region for aluminium alloy samples hard anodized was shorter than that of the other material condition which has been solution heat treated and then age hardened (T6 heat treated), while the life in low stress region was longer than that of the material (T6 heat treated). However, such a coating to the aluminium substrate gives rise to a significant increase in fatigue strength of 107 cycle in comparison with the as cast condition, but a much less increase in comparison with T6 heat treated samples. From the microscopic point of view, it has been observed that fatigue fracture of samples hard anodized initiated in the coating in high stress region in opposition to low stress region in which fatigue fracture initiation started on the interface between coating and substrate.