Influence of Solution Heat Treatment on Tensile Properties of Zinc-aluminum (ZA5) Solder Alloy

Zinc-Aluminum (ZA) alloys are important industrial alloys which are gaining widespread use for many industrial applications due to their excellent castability and cutting machinability. Since they were introduced in the early 1970s, various investigations have been carried out on this family of engineering materials to broaden the scope of areas where they can be usefully applied. While many investigations have been carried out on many of the ZA alloy materials, only few studies have reported investigations on ZA5. Therefore, this study investigated tensile properties of ZA5 alloy. Tensile strength, Fracture energy and Elongation properties of ZA5 solution heat treated were investigated. ZA5 alloy material was prepared in the laboratory and cast into rods of 15 mm diameter and 200 mm long. A sample of the cast rods was solution heat treated at 100ºC for 6 hours, while another untreated sample which served as control was equally produced. Tensile characteristics of the specimens were evaluated on Universal testing machine. Results showed that ZA5 alloy material exhibits superplastic behavior at low flow stress. Solution heat treatment performed on the alloy significantly modified the structure of the alloy, and increased the tensile strength of the alloy. By solution heat treatment at 100ºC for 6 hours, the tensile strength of the ZA5 alloy can be improved. In general, solution heat treatment of ZA5 alloy for 6 hours at 100ºC influenced the tensile properties of the alloy material.