6061 Vs 6063

[Travis Covington]

There is some confusion here about the two alloys. Hopefully this will benefit others as well.

"6063" and "6061" are not sufficient descriptions of the materials in question. To know the specific differences, you need to know the specific heat treatment/tempering process of the alloy.

If you compare 6063-T6 and 6061-T6 you will find that their properties are similar with 6063 having a slightly lesser Ultimate Tensile and Yield Strengths. However, if you look at mcmaster, I can only assume they are selling a 6063-T4 and 6061-T6. If you compare them, then yes, 6063 has a considerably lesser ultimate tensile and yield strength. However, for 6063 the % elongation almost doubles, from 12% to 22%.

The machnining differences have everything to do with the heat treatment as well. The T6 alloy will probably machine better than the softer T4.

Edit: Seems that kevin posted part of what I was getting at before I was finished writing. I will leave it as is with a little extra explanation.

[bjimster1]

this pretty pretty much copy and pasted from a Mcmasters data sheet but whatever, the information is all there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6063_aluminum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6061_aluminum

[Andy A.]

An exclent source for materials data is www.matweb.com. They offer data on a wide range of materials, and information on different alloys, heat treatments and even specific dimensions of samples.

The relevant pages for the two alloys, both with a T6 treatment.

6063-T6

6061-T6

Of course, its all refrence data, and they keep a disclaimer against using that data for design. Ideally, you would do your own testing with samples of the material as it comes from the supplier. For FIRST purposes, its fine to use handbook data like this.

Testing methods vary from one source to another. The important thing is to pick a reputable source and stick to it. I think there are a couple 'machinist handbooks' out there that would probably have this kinda of data.

[Gary Dillard]

I need to throw in my warning here, as I do in every post about 6000 series aluminum. If you weld it, the yield strength goes from about 39 ksi to about 11 ksi in the heat affected zone (usually within about 1 inch of the weld).