Horizontal Direct Chill Casting Process Research Articles

Influence of Fe and Si Addition on the Properties and Structure Conductivity Aluminium

AbstractThe effect of iron and silicon addition on the structure and properties of aluminium wire rod obtained in the laboratory horizontal direct chill casting process has been analysed. In addition, the impact of laboratory wire drawing process has been examined. The addition of iron and velocity of casting increase the strength of aluminium wire rod in as-cast condition while the electrical conductivity drop acceptable. Moreover, the laboratory wire drawing process causes work-hardening wires and increase drawing tension as a result of fragmentation of structure and growth of grain boundaries. It has been shown that iron is beneficial for mechanical and technological properties of aluminium.

Influence of Casting Velocity on Structure and Properties of AlFe0,5 Alloy

The effect of iron addition on the structure and properties of aluminium wire rod obtained in the laboratory horizontal direct chill casting process has been analyzed. In addition, the impact of the casting speed on the properties of aluminium bars, containing the 0.5 wt% of Fe, and laboratory wire drawing process has been examined. The addition of iron increase the strength and plasticity of aluminium wire rod in as-cast condition and after wire drawing process, while the electrical conductivity drop acceptable. Moreover, by improving the plasticity of wires became possible to increase the deformability limit, measured by the reduction in the wire diameter by drawing to a level of less than 0.5 mm. Small-diameter wires are used for the construction of automotive wire harnesses, cables battery or winding wires. It has been shown that iron is beneficial for mechanical and technological properties of aluminium, and the horizontal direct chill casting process by graphite crystallizer may be an alternative solution in comparison with industrial scale of continuous casting and rolling by Properzi method (CCR) or Southwire SCR process in the context of the preparation of smaller amounts of material with scrap metals.

Effect of low frequency electromagnetic field on as casting structure and surface quality of horizontal direct chill casting 7075 alloy

Horizontal direct chill (HDC) casting is a well established production route for aluminium alloy ingots; however, the ingots may suffer from inhomogeneous microstructures and serious macrosegregation due to the unbalanced cooling condition and gravitational effect. The present study considers the HDC casting of 7075 aluminium alloy ingot under the influence of a low frequency electromagnetic field (LFEF). Temperature measurement is employed to analyse the effect of LFEF on the HDC casting process. Surface topography and structure observation are conducted to analyse the effect of LFEF on the surface and interior quality of the HDC ingot. The results show that the LFEF can effectively uniformalise the thermal distribution, flatten the sump shape, improve the ingot surface quality, promote a transition from columnar/feathery to equiaxed dendritic growth and has a distinct grain refining effect.

Floating Grains in the HDC Casting 7075 Aluminum Alloy Ingot

7075 aluminum alloy ingot with the diameters of 100 mm was produced by Horizontal Direct-Chill (HDC). The temperature in the melt was measured and the ingots were examined in detail with the aim to reveal the floating grains in the HDC ingot. Experimental results show that very large floating grains with coarse dendrite arm spacing (DAS) mainly concentrate in the half-moon area near bottom surface of the HDC casting ingot, under the function of gravity. The floating grains in the HDC casting process is much bigger than that founded in Vertical Direct-Chill (VDC) casting process.

Effect of Electromagnetic Field on Horizontal Direct Chill Casting of 7075 Aluminum Alloy

The influence of different electromagnetic fields on the horizontal direct chill (HDC) casting of aluminum alloy is studied. 7075 aluminum alloy with 100-mm in diameter is produced by HDC casting process; single electromagnetic field located before or around the mold and an out-phase electromagnetic field (OPEMF) are applied in the HDC casting process. The effect of different electromagnetic fields on the HDC casting solidification behavior and as-cast structure is investigated. The electromagnetic field can effectively make uniform thermal distribution in the molten pool and refine the as-cast structure. The OPEMF is more efficient than the single electromagnetic field in improving the as-cast structure of HDC cast ingots.

Effect of low-frequency electromagnetic field on the as-casting microstructures and mechanical properties of HDC 2024 aluminum alloy

The influences of the low frequency electromagnetic field on the horizontal direct chill casting process were investigated experimentally. Ingots of 2024 aluminum alloy with a cross size of 40 mm×200 mm were produced by the conventional horizontal chill casting process and low frequency electromagnetic horizontal chill casting process respectively. The as-cast structures and the mechanical property of the ingots were examined. The results showed that the low frequency electromagnetic field could substantially refine the microstructures and pronouncedly reduce the macrosegregation in the horizontal direct chill casting process. Moreover, the surface quality of the ingot was prominently improved by the low frequency electromagnetic field. The fracture strength and elongation percentage of the ingot was increased with the low frequency electromagnetic field.

Effect of combined application of electromagnetic fields on horizontal direct chill casting of 7050 aluminium alloy

Influence of combined electromagnetic field application on horizontal direct chill casting of 7050 aluminium alloy is investigated. Temperature measurement and structure observation are carried out to analyse the casting process under different electromagnetic fields. Combined electromagnetic field can reduce the harmful gravitational thermal effect in the horizontal direct chill casting process and improve the ingot properties. With application of combined electromagnetic field, temperature distribution in the melt is more uniform, sump of the ingot becomes flat and symmetric, surface quality of ingot improves markedly, grain morphology changes from feathery grains to equiaxed grains and grain size decreases. Distribution of copper and zinc in the transverse section of the ingot becomes more uniform.

Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Field Influencing Horizontal Direct Chill Casting of Aluminum Alloy Rods

The horizontal direct chill (HDC) casting process is a well-established production route for an aluminum alloy ingot; however, the ingot may suffer from inhomogeneous microstructures and serious macrosegregation due to the unbalanced cooling condition and gravitational effect. In order to control the defect, a low frequency electromagnetic field has been applied in the HDC casting process and its influences on microstructures and macrosegregation have been studied. The results show that the low frequency electromagnetic field can improve macrostructures, reduce inhomogeneous microstructures and macrosegregation in HDC product; and two main parameters of the electromagnetic field—density and frequency influence the microstructures and solution distribution along the diameter of the ingot significantly. In the range of ampere-turns and frequency employed in the experiments, the optimum ampere-turns and frequency have been found to be 10000At, 30Hz.

Effect of low-frequency magnetic field on microstructures and macrosegregation of horizontal direct chill casting 7075 aluminum alloy

The horizontal direct chill (HDC) casting process is a well-established production route for an aluminum alloy ingot; however, the ingot may suffer from inhomogeneous microstructures and serious macrosegregation due to the unbalanced cooling condition and gravitational effect. In order to control the defect, a low frequency electromagnetic field has been applied in the HDC casting process and its influences on cast surface, microstructures and macrosegregation have been studied. The results show that the low frequency electromagnetic field can effectively improve surface quality, reduce inhomogeneous microstructures and macrosegregation in HDC product; and two main parameters of the electromagnetic field—density and frequency, significantly influence the microstructures and solution distribution along the diameter of the ingot. In the range of ampere-turns and frequency employed in the experiments, the optimum ampere-turns and frequency are found to be 10,000 At, 30 Hz.

Effect of low-frequency magnetic field on microstructures of horizontal direct chill casting 2024 aluminum alloy

The horizontal direct chill (HDC) casting process is a well-established production route for aluminum alloy ingots but the ingot may some times suffer from inhomogeneous microstructures due to unbalanced cooling and the effect of gravity. In order to control the defect, a low-frequency electromagnetic field has been applied in HDC casting process and its influence has been studied. The results show that a low-frequency electromagnetic field can effectively reduce inhomogeneous microstructures in HDC castings. Two main parameters of the electromagnetic field—density and frequency, significantly influence the microstructures and solution distribution along the diameter of the ingot. The mechanisms of the effects of electromagnetic field have been discussed.

Effect of Low-Frequency Magnetic Fields on Microstructures of Horizontal Direct Chill Cast 2024 Aluminum Alloys

The horizontal direct chill (HDC) casting process is a well-established production route for wrought aluminum alloy ingots. However, the ingots may suffer from heterogenous microstructures due to the unbalanced cooling condition and gravitational effect. In order to minimize the casting defects, a low frequency electromagnetic field was applied in the HDC casting process and its influence on solidified microstructure was studied. The results show that the low frequency electromagnetic field can effectively reduce heterogenous microstructures in HDC ingot; and two main parameters of electromagnetic field, i.e., intensity and frequency, significantly affect the microstructures and solute distribution from the center to the periphery of the ingot. In the range of ampere-turns and frequency employed in the experiments, the ampere-turns of 10000 At and frequency of 30 Hz were found to be optimum.