Study of the deep drawing behavior and crystallographic texture of AA 3104-H19 aluminum alloy sheets

The aluminum alloy 3104, H19 temper, is commonly used in the production of two-piece beverage cans. The objective of the present study is to compare three different rolled sheets of this alloy. All three of them are routinely used in production lines dedicated to can manufacturing. The yield strength for all three was found around 265 MPa, the ultimate tensile strength 281 MPa, and the average elongation 4.19%. The strain hardening exponent (n) was similar for all three sheets, averaging 0.078. The plastic strain ratios for planar anisotropy (ΔR) and for normal anisotropy ( R ¯ ) were found to be near zero and 0.4, respectively. Values of ΔR near zero indicate there is no earing tendency. The crystallographic texture analysis yielded four dominating components: Brass ({110}<112>) and Copper ({112}<111>), which are typical of strain hardened aluminum, Cube ({001}<100>), usually associated with recrystallization, and Goss ({110}<001>). Such a texture would be conducive to balanced earing. The metallographic images for all three sheets were alike, with constituents not homogeneously distributed and with similar size and chemical compositions in addition to dispersoids finely spread throughout the aluminum matrix. The Erichsen tests also showed alike results with an average of 4.6 mm before failure.