In plate form, 6082 is the alloy most commonly used for general machining. It is widely used in Europe and has replaced 6061 alloy in many applications, primarily due to its higher strength (from a large amount of manganese) and its excellent resistance to corrosion. It is typically seen in transport, scaffolding, bridges and general engineering.
Temper Types
Hydro's most common tempers for 6082 alloy are:
- F - As fabricated.
- T5 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process and artificially aged. Applies to products that are not cold worked after cooling.
- T5511 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process, stress relieved by stretching and artificially aged.
- T6 - Solution heat treated and artificially aged.
- O - Annealed. This is the lowest strength, highest ductility temper.
- T4 - Solution heat treated and naturally aged to a substantially stable condition. Applies to products that are not cold worked after solution heat-treatment.
- T6511 - Solution heat treated, stress relieved by stretching, and artificially aged.
Alloy 6082 Properties
Alloy 6082 offers similar, but not equivalent, physical characteristics to 6061 alloy, and slightly higher mechanical properties in the -T6 condition. It has good finishing characteristics and responds well to the most common anodic coatings (i.e., clear, clear and dye, hardcoat).
Various commercial joining methods (e.g., welding, brazing, etc.) can be applied to alloy 6082; however, heat treatment may reduce strength in the weld region. It provides good machinability in the –T5 and –T6 tempers, but chip breakers or special machining techniques (e.g., peck drilling) are recommended for improving chip formation.
The -0 or -T4 temper is recommended when bending or forming alloy 6082. It can also be difficult to produce thin walled extrusion shapes in 6082 alloy, so -T6 temper may not be available due to alloy quenching limitations.
Uses for 6082 Alloy
Alloy 6082’s good weldability, brazeability, corrosion resistance, formability and machinability make it useful for rod, bar and machining stock, seamless aluminum tubing, structural profiles and custom profiles.
These characteristics, as well as its light weight and excellent mechanical properties, contributed to the use of 6082-T6 alloy in automobile, aviation and high-speed rail applications.
Hydro Extrusion provides a comprehensive suite of services for clients in virtually all industrial, commercial and consumer markets. We can satisfy the most challenging requirements from standard profiles to complex multi-part aluminum extrusions in standard and proprietary aluminum alloys with dimensional accuracy and superior surface quality.
Our unprecedented resources allow us to create custom alloys for customers. We offer the industry’s broadest product capabilities in press sizes and tonnages (direct and indirect extrusion), alloy selection, circle sizes, profile types and “green” billet”, and produce some of the largest Outside Diameter (OD) sizes and highest precision tolerances in the industry.
6082 aluminum alloy is available in our ECON-O-ROD®, ECON-O-HEX®, ECON-O-PLATE®, ACC-U-ROD®, ACC-U-BAR™ and ACC-U-PLATE® product lines.