The current work was initiated to investigate the influence of cooling rates after homogenisation and extrusion preheating temperature on the mechanical properties after artificial ageing of the extruded sections. Three different alloys were used in the extrusion trial (6060, 6005 and 6082) at a 2200 metric ton industrial press. For each alloy three different cooling rates from the homogenising temperature were used; 200 degreesC/h, 350 degreesC/h and one approximately 700 degreesC/h. The billet preheating temperatures were varied in the range from 400 degreesC to 510 degreesC. All variants were extruded at two different extrusion dies; one solid shape and one hollow section. The results illustrate that the tensile strength increase significantly with increasing billet preheating temperature both for low and high alloyed 6XXX material. The use of very high cooling rates after homogenisation (approximately 700 degreesC/h) were proven to be beneficial for mechanical strength properties of all alloys investigated in this work. A more substantial effect was expected for the 6082 alloy than observed, but the effect on the strength of the 6060 alloy was, however, found to be surprisingly large. On the basis of this investigation it is concluded that all investigated factors (i.e chemistry, homogenisation cooling rate, billet preheating temperature and the type of section extruded) have a significant influence on the mechanical strength of the extruded section after artificial ageing. Low preheating temperatures might increase the productivity, but will have a negative effect on mechanical strength properties and thereby reduce the productivity by, for instance, increasing the scrap amount. In addition, with optimum process parameters the same mechanical properties can be obtained with a lower alloy composition which also gives higher extrusion speeds.