Abstract:As a brazing foil, 4004 Al alloy has good welding performance. However, the high Si content decreases the plasticity of the alloy. In order to improve the plasticity of 4004 Al alloy and subsequently improve the productivity of 4004 Al foil, 4004 Al alloy was modified by RE-Ba-Sb. As a comparison, the 4004 Al alloy was also modified by RE with different addition. The tensile properties of the alloy reach the best when the addition of RE was 0.2%, in which the tensile strength and elongation were 194 MPa and 5%, respectively. For RE-Ba-Sb modification, the addition of three elements was optimized by orthogonal analysis. The results showed that the greatest impact parameter of RE-Ba-Sb modification was RE addition, followed by addition of Ba and Sb. The optimum addition amounts of RE, Ba and Sb obtained by orthogonal analyses were 0.01%, 0.3%, and 0.05%, respectively. The tensile strength and the elongation of 4004 Al alloy modified by the optimal modification process were 224 MPa and 6%, respectively. The amount of RE addition in RE-Ba-Sb modification is lower than that in RE modification.

Key words: aluminum alloy; rare earth; Ba; Sb; compound modification