The effect of forging process conditions of semi-solid aluminum material on mechanical properties

Abstract

Semi-solid forging(SSF) process of A356 aluminium alloy has been studied to assess the effect of process variables on the component integrity. Semi-solid material(SSM) was fabricated by mechanical and electro-magnetic stirring process. The fabricated SSM by using mechanical stirring process has been carried out on cooling rate of 0.022.deg. C/sec 0.0094.deg. C/sec and stirring speed n=600, 1000 rpm, respectively. The fabricated SSM by using electro-magnetic stirring process is supplied by Pechiney. The holding time and temperature in the semi-solid state before forging also affects the globular microstructure of alloy. Therefore, the influence of these two parameters is discussed in terms of the microstructure of alloy. The SSF process has been conducted with three different die temperatures(=250.deg. C, 300.deg. C, 350.deg. C) and two kinds of gate types(straight gate and orifice gate). This paper is to investigate the influence of gate shapes of die on filling phenomena in SSF process more deeply. The mechanical properties of forged components were also investigated for variation of process conditions such as die temperature, gate shape and SSM.