Aluminum alloy 7075 was a star in the 1940s and for a good reason too. For the uninitiated, aluminum alloy 7075 has a strength that is comparable to many popular plates of steel that are on the market today, maintaining a great fatigue strength, high resistance to corrosion and average machinability. Not to mention it is one third the weight of steel.
With zinc as its primary alloying element, the alloy held a lot of promise in the early days of manufacturing. So what happened?
The process of welding aluminum alloy 7075 is no easy feat and almost impossible to uses to create some of the parts you may find down a factory line. Yet, the team of researchers from UCLA Samueli School of Engineering may have just developed a way to weld AA 7075.