Modification of aluminum alloys in a solar furnace

The processes of the modification of the D16 aluminum alloy at the focus of a solar furnace are studied experimentally. The surface heat treatment at the solar furnace focus was performed without melting the surface. The experiment showed that the grain size decreases from 10 to 3 microns with the exposure of the specimens at the focal spot for 35 seconds, and small regions with the grain size 0.3 micron appear. Grains of dimension 0.3 micron are observed with the exposure of the specimen at the solar furnace focus for 40 seconds, and the microhardness is H _v = 74.8 kg/mm². The repeat measurement of the microhardness after 40 days corresponds to H _v = 104.8 kg/mm², i.e., the microhardness after modification in the solar furnace and natural aging increases by 16%.