Published Article / The heat treatment cycles that are currently applied to semi-solid processed components are mostly those that are in use for traditional dendritic alloys. These heat treatments are not necessarily the optimum heat treatments for SSM processing. The T6 heat treatment of aluminium alloys is a relatively expensive process and a reduction in treatment times would be advantageous. In order to improve the T6 heat treatment cycle for rheocast alloy A356, the effect of various parameters on the quality index were investigated. These included solution treatment time, natural aging time, artificial aging temperature and artificial aging time.