In this work, T-shaped mould design was used to generate hot spot and the effect of Sr and B on the hot tearing susceptibility of A356 was investigated. The die temperature was kept at 250ºC and the pouring was carried out at 740ºC. The amonut of Sr and B additions were 30 and 10 ppm, respectively. One of the most important defects that may exist in cast aluminium is the presence of bifilms. Bifilms can form by the surface turbulence of liquid metal. During such an action, two unbonded surfaces of oxides fold over each other which act as a crack. Therefore, this defect cause many problems in the cast part. In this work, it was found that bifilms have significant effect over the hot tearing of A356 alloy. When the alloy solidifies directionally, the structure consists of elongated dendritic structure. In the absence of equiaxed dendrites, the growing tips of the dendrites pushed the bifilms to open up and unravel. Thus, leading to enlarged surface of oxide to become more harmful. In this case, it was found that these bifilms initiate hot tearing.
Production of the defect-free casting of aluminium alloys is the biggest challenge. Porosity is known to be the most important defect. Therefore, many cast parts are subjected to several non-destructive tests in order to check their acceptability. There are several standards, yet, the acceptance limit of porosity size and distribution may change according to the customer design and requirements. In this work, the aim was targeted to evaluate the effect of size, location, and distribution of pores on the tensile properties of cast A356 alloy. ANSYS software was used to perform stress analysis where the pore sizes were changed between 0.05 mm to 3 mm by 0.05 mm increments. Additionally, pore number was changed from 1 to 5 where they were placed at different locations in the test bar. Finally, bifilms were placed inside the pore at different sizes and orientations. The stress generated along the pores was recorded and compared with the fracture stress of the A356 alloy. It was found that as the bifilm size was getting smaller, their effect on tensile properties was lowered. On the other hand, as bifilms were larger, their orientation became the dominant factor in determining the fracture.
Porosity is one of the major problems in casting operations and there are several discussions in the literature about the porosity formation in aluminum castings. Bifilms are the defects that are introduced into the melt by turbulence. They can be detected with reduced pressure test and presented numerically by measuring bifilm index. The measure of bifilm index is the sum of total oxide length given in millimeters from the cross-section of reduced pressure test sample solidified under 0.01 MPa. In this work, low pressure die casting (LPDC) unit was built in an attempt to enhance the producibility rate. The unit consists of a pump housing that was placed inside the melt in the melting furnace where the pressure was applied instead of the whole melt surface. It was observed that the melt quality of A356 alloy was deteriorated over time which had led to higher porosity. This was attributed to the increased oxide thickness of the bifilm by the consumption of air in between the folded oxides. A relationship was found between bifilm index and pore formation.
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Purpose: Evaluation of different casting methods to produce raw material for thixoforming, aiming costs reduction in the production of thixoformable alloys. Reduction of costs may stimulate the commercial use of the semisolid processing technology (SSM). Design/methodology/approach: It is analysed the effect of different casting routes in the microstructure features in semisolid A356 alloy, and in its rheological behaviour. Different casting procedures were investigated: a) pouring in water cooled Cu mould; b) same as „a)” adding electromagnetic stirring; c) same as „a)” adding mechanical vibration; d) same as „b)” with addition of grain refiner; e) same as „c)” with addition of grain refiner. Cast materials were reheated to the semisolid sate and the effect of different holding times upon the globularization of the primary phase was analysed for each cast structure. The semisolid material in each condition was evaluated concerning rheological behaviour. Mechanical properties of thixoformed products were evaluated using flexion tests. Findings: Despite the several methods currently in use to produce raw material for thixoforming, this work shows that the best combination of quality of thixoformable material/ production cost /process operationality can be achieved using casting in permanent mould, under water cooling and mechanical vibration. Resulting cast material under this condition presents grain size smaller than 100 μm, ideal for SSM. Lower the grain size, lower the primary globule size and higher the roundness of the primary phase particle and lower the apparent viscosity of the semisolid. In the best condition achieved, apparent viscosity measured was circa 105 Pa.s (similar to the working range for glass), leading to a probable homogeneous die filling during thixoforming in high pressure die casting machines (HPDC). Research limitations/implications: Regardless the best microstructure for SSM resulting from casting under mechanical vibration, it is still necessary to reach the optimum casting condition in terms of vibration in order to improve, even more, refinement of the microstructure. Practical implications: The suggested process is a simple technique to reduce costs in the production of raw material for thixoforming. The technology is easily implementable in industries. Originality/value: The development of a simple, original, low cost method to produce raw material for SSM technology.
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