Investigation of the Microhardness, Morphology, and Wear Resistance of A7075 Subjected to Machine Hammer Peening

摘要

In industrial production, 7075 aluminum alloy (A7075) is prized for its strength and light weight. However, heat treatment can reduce its hardness and wear resistance. Therefore, proper surface treatments are often necessary to optimize its mechanical properties. In this work, a hammering tool attached to a robotic arm was employed to impact the surface of A7075 using different impact energies, and the surface hardness, morphology, roughness, and frictional characteristics of samples subjected to machine hammer peening (MHP) treatment were analyzed to explore the strengthening mechanism of MHP. The results indicate that the hardness increased to a maximum value of 235 HV with rising impact energy, whereas the depth of influence (2 mm) was almost unaffected by the impact energy. Microstructural analysis revealed significant grain refinement, especially at 2.7 J. The surface roughness increased significantly to about 7.2 μm, then dropped to around 3.7 μm when the impact energy increased to 2.7 J. Finally, the roughness decreased to ~6.8 μm. In addition, the samples that were strengthened by MHP demonstrated low friction coefficients (about 0.27) and wear volume (minimum value of 7.67/10−4 mm3), implying that MHP can effectively improve the wear resistance of A7075. Observation by SEM revealed that the corresponding wear mechanism is mainly attributable to mild oxidative wear and three-body wear.