Production of Al-Si Alloys by the Direct Silicon Reduction from the Amorphous Microsilica

Abstract

The survey of modern methods of silumins obtaining has been conducted. The prospects of silumins obtaining using amorphous silica caused by, firstly, with a high yield of silicon production waste; secondly, with the lost profit from their industrial use and, thirdly, with the increasing of efficiency of silumins production process by omitting partially the energy-consuming stage of metallurgical silicon production. Thermodynamic possibility of silicon dioxide reduction in aluminum melt has been determined. The method of aluminum-silicon alloys production by introducing preheated amorphous silica into the aluminum melt together with argon stream (with subsequent intensive mixing and casting into the electromagnetic crystallizer) has been studied. It has been determined that this method can allow to produce pre-eutectic aluminum-silicon alloys with more than 5 wt.% of silicon.