Abstract
The cooling slope (CS) casting is the simplest and cheapest technique for producing feedstock materials with non-dendritic microstructure. Such materials are required for semi-solid metal (SSM) processing methods such as thixoforming. In the present investigation, the effect of the pouring temperature and the water cooling on the thixotropic microstructure of commercial A319 Al-Si cast alloy was studied. The results showed that increasing the pouring temperature slightly reduces the bulk porosity of the CS ingots. The ingots poured with water-cooling exhibited slightly lower porosity content than those poured with without water-cooling. Generally, the primary α-Al grains exhibited higher shape factor near the edge of ingot than the middle and center. Ingots poured with water-cooling exhibited lower grain size and shape factor than those poured without water-cooling. Increasing the pouring temperature increases the size α-Al grains.
Highlights
Thixoforming and thixocasting are semi-solid processing (SSP) technologies combining the near-net-shape capabilities of die-casting and mechanical properties of forging[1,2]
It has been found that increasing the pouring temperature slightly reduces the bulk porosity of the cooling slope (CS) cast ingots
The CS cast ingots poured with water-cooling exhibited slightly lower average grain size of the primary α-Al grains than those poured without water-cooling
Summary
Thixoforming and thixocasting are semi-solid processing (SSP) technologies combining the near-net-shape capabilities of die-casting and mechanical properties of forging[1,2]. Cooling slope (CS) casting is one of the simplest and cheapest techniques used to produce ingots for thixocasting and rehocasting[1,3] In this technique, molten alloy with a superheat temperature is poured on an inclined plate. In CS casting, various parameters such as superheat (pouring) temperature, length, angle, vibration, water-cooling, inclined plate and mold materials can affect the final microstructure[1,3,8]. The effect of such parameters on the microstructural characteristics of both. The aim of the present investigation is to investigate the effect of pouring temperature and water-cooling on the microstructural characteristics of A319 aluminum alloy ingots produced by cooling slope casting
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