Abstract
Although Zn alloys are a very widely used material, there is a need for investigations concerning the influence of thermal conditions on its microstructure and its properties, which makes it useful for the specific tasks it has to fulfil for mass-produced items manufactured by the metalworking industry, in the automotive industry, as well as in countless electronic components. One of the possibilities is to create finer microstructures and enhance their properties, to change their chemical composition by adding alloying additives, and inoculation using modifiers. So in this paper, investigation results are presented concerning the influence of chosen alloying additives, such as Sr, Ce and Ti–B on the measured and calculated thermal characteristics and microstructure of zinc alloys with the addition of aluminium and copper. Based on the results on the phase and chemical composition of the cast Zn–Al–Cu alloys, inoculated with Sr and Ti–B, no differences were detected in the phase composition of the investigated alloys, owing to changes in cooling rates, which were chosen for the sample cooling process. A small amount of added cerium caused the occurrence of new phases present in the microstructure. Modification of the Zn–Al–Cu alloy precipitates changes in the thermomorphology of the phase and the ‘tweed’ type changes in the microstructure. Moreover, the addition of cerium causes a decrease in the temperature at the beginning (T L) and the end of the solidification, as well as the occurrence of a multicomponent eutectic, which can be detected on the derivative curve.
Highlights
Growing customer demand for components of engineering materials with high mechanical properties and high corrosion resistance is an important reason for extending investigations into improving existing alloys and developing new Zn alloys with enhanced properties and competitive prices [1,2,3,4,5,6].Zn alloys are used primarily for the manufacture of fine, thin-walled casts, which require high processing precision
Zn alloys are a very widely used material, there is a need for investigations concerning the influence of thermal conditions on its microstructure and its properties, which makes it useful for the specific tasks it has to fulfil for mass-produced items manufactured by the metalworking industry, in the automotive industry, as well as in countless electronic components
Investigation results are presented concerning the influence of chosen alloying additives, such as Sr, Ce and Ti–B on the measured and calculated thermal characteristics and microstructure of zinc alloys with the addition of aluminium and copper
Summary
Growing customer demand for components of engineering materials with high mechanical properties and high corrosion resistance is an important reason for extending investigations into improving existing alloys and developing new Zn alloys with enhanced properties and competitive prices [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Zn alloys are used primarily for the manufacture of fine, thin-walled casts, which require high processing precision. These alloys are characterized by a higher casting speed, providing a ten times greater stability of the crucibles, which makes them very useful for industrial masscasting production [1, 6]. The effect of chemical composition on the crystallization kinetics, microstructure and properties of the cast Zn–Al– Cu alloys was investigated to determine the optimum Zn modifiers’ addition (Tables 2, 3), in the form of Sr, Ti–B and Ce. The casts were made in a resistance furnace in chamotte–graphite crucibles. The thermo-derivative analysis for the investigated alloys with alloying additives was performed using a graphite crucible, by applying the Universal. The results of the metallographic investigation performed on the light microscope (Figs. 4–7) indicate that the cast
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