Papers by Keyword: A356 Aluminum Alloy

Abstract: A356 alloy was widely used in automobile industry due to its excellent castability and comprehensive mechanical properties. But, with increasing demands of strictly safety of components, fatigue life of A356 alloy became the key properties which were considered seriously. To evaluate the time-consuming properties, elongation, as a replaced property, was employed for its easy testing and the relationship which was proportional to the fatigue life of materials. Semi-solid processing was proved that it can improve the elongation of materials while the mechanical properties still kept at the same level as original alloy. Presently, many semi-solid techniques were developed to produce various products, in which the additional equipment was necessary to form the semi-solid microstructure. Therefore, this work is aimed to development an easily technique to obtain the semi-solid microstructure. In present study, A356 alloy with typical semi-solid microstructure was obtained by addition of RE elements during melt processing. In addition, the melting and pouring process was kept the same as the normal gravity casting of A356 alloy. After the treatment, the elongation was 19.5% for A356 alloy with RE addition, which was much higher than that of 13% for normal A356 alloy. Microstructure observation showed that the morphology of Si was changed significantly, and the shape of spheroid was dominantly appeared other than short rod shape. The improvement of elongation was attributed to the morphology change of α-Al and eutectic Si.

Abstract: The effects of annulus gap width, stirring power and stirring frequency on the microstructure of the semi-solid A356 aluminum alloy slurry have been investigated by the annulus electromagnetic stirring (AEMS) technology The results show that narrow annulus gap , strong stirring power and high stirring frequency are advantageous to obtain the small spherical primarymicrostructure, the smaller the annulus gap width is, the bigger the stirring power is, and the higher the stirring frequency is, the more uniform, the smaller and the more spherical the microstructure is. So the high stirring frequency, narrow annulus gap, strong stirring power are beneficial to obtain the fine and spherical semisolid microstructure in AEMS. Also the results indicate that the primary particles are globular, small and distribute homogeneously in the AEMS.

Abstract: Grain refining has been studied in the semi-solid-metal (SSM) casting by addition of master alloy Al-5Ti-1B using inclined slope. A356 aluminium alloy was melted at 850 °C and poured at 660 °C on the inclined slope into the steel mould. Grain refiner was added in various percentages of 0.2%, 0.5% and 1.0% in A356 aluminium alloy melt. Microstructure and microhardness were characterized using optical microscope and Vicker’s microhardness tester. The addition of master alloy Al-5Ti-1B not only refined but also increased the globularity of the primary α-Al particles. The higher hardness was achieved with 1% addition of master alloy Al-5Ti-1B.

Abstract: — For fabricating light weight structures, it requires high strength-to weight ratio. AA6061 aluminium alloy is widely used in the fabrication of light weight structures. A356 aluminium alloy has wide spread application in aerospace industries. Friction stir welding is solid state joining process which is conducting for joining similar and dissimilar materials. The friction stir welding parameters play an important role for deciding the strength of welded joints. In this investigation, A356 and AA6061 alloys were friction stir welded by varying triangular, square, hexagonal pin profiles of tool keeping the remaining parameters same and AA6061 alloys were friction stir welded by varying tool shoulder diameter as 12mm,15mm,18mm without changing other parameters. Tensile properties of each joint have been analyzed microscopically. From the experimental results, it is observed that hexagonal pin profiled tool and 15mm shoulder diameter tool provides higher tensile properties when compared to other tools.

Abstract: The hardness, bending strength, and double shear strength of A356 aluminium alloy was studied under as cast and T6 heat treatment conditions obtained with gravity casting, vacuum casting and squeeze casting methods. The results of these three casting methods have been compared. The hardness, bending strength of A356 alloy after T6 obviously increased; the hardness value of both vacuum casting and squeeze casting has been found to be 62 HRB which is relatively high compared to gravity casting. The bending strength of gravity casting is 299 MPa (22% increase) compared to vacuum casting. However, after T6 heat treatment, the double shear strength values of all these three castings decreases.

Abstract: In the present investigation, effect of minor additions of magnesium (Mg) content on the dry sliding wear behavior of A356 alloy has been reported. Alloy composition, normal pressures and sliding distances on A356 alloy has been studied. The worn surfaces were characterized by SEM microanalysis. The results indicate that, the wear rate of A356 alloy increases with increase in normal pressures and sliding distances in all the cases and decreases with 0.7% Mg addition to the A356 alloy. This is due to the change in microstructure resulting in improvement of hardness and strength of the alloy. The worn surface study indicates that, the formation of oxide layer between the mating surfaces during sliding improves sliding wear performance.

Abstract: An A356 aluminum alloy billet which has a dendritic microstructure was compressed and then partially re-melted to semi-solid state before water quenching, by which the spheroidization of Al grains was realized. A color etchant called Weck's reagent was used to characterize both the dendritic and spheroidal microstructure. In both cases, distinct color differences were observed inside Al grains by normal optical microscopy. Interestingly, a dendritic-shaped structure inside the spheroidal Al grains was visualized, which should be the reflection of the original dendrite before heating and partial re-melting. Also, the grain growth during water quenching could be clearly visualized after etching with this reagent. As a result, solid fractions could be evaluated more precisely by excluding the grain growth when measuring the area of solid phase in 2-D micrographs. In order to investigate the coloring mechanism, electron probe micro-analyses were carried out to characterize the micro-segregations inside an Al grain. Results showed that the micro-segregation of Ti had a strong correlation with the color difference. Detailed investigation found that the micro-segregation of Ti could be preserved after heating and partial re-melting due to the extremely low diffusion rate of Ti in Al.

Abstract: In the present work, fusion-joining of vacuum high pressure die cast (HPDC) aluminum alloy A356 and wrought alloy 6061 by applying Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW-MIG) process was investigated to understand the effect of the MIG process on the microstructure and tensile behaviors of the base joined alloys (T6 Heat treatment A356 and 6061). The microstructures of the base metal (T6 heat treatment A356 and 6061), Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) and Fusion Zone (filler metal ER4043) were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy. The results of tensile testing indicated that, the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) of V-HPDC alluminium A356 subjected to T6 thermal treatment were relatively low, compared to both wrought alloy 6061 and the filler metal (ER 4043). The microstructure analysis showed that the low strengths of T6 A356 alloy should be at least attributed to the absence of the magnesium-based intermetallic phase, coarse grain structure and the presence of porosity, which resulted from the HPDC process, MIG welding and thermal treatment.

Abstract: In this paper, Al/WC composite coatings on A356 alloy were prepared by mechanical alloying, and their mechanical properties were characterized. The processing parameters for mechanical milling treatment, such as the premixing process of Al and WC powders, the ball-to-powder weight ratio and the milling duration, have been optimized, and the optimum ball-to-powder weight ratio and milling time were determined to be 14:1 and 12 h, respectively. It was found that premixed Al and WC powders have no significant influence on Brinell hardness due to the powders adhering to the balls and milling tank wall. With the Al/WC composite coating, the Brinell hardness of A356 alloys can be significantly improved from 65 HBW to 115 HBW.

Abstract: The cooling slope technique has been developed in recent years, which controls the nucleation and growth of the primary grains during solidification to achieve fine and non-dendritic microstructures. In this study, A356 Al alloys were processed through a modified cooling slope technique to obtain fine, non-dendritic microstructures, in which the cooling rate of the cast crucible was controlled. Three process parameters, namely pouring temperature, inclined slope angle, and the cooling rate of the cast crucible, were varied during the processing. The cooling slope was water-cooled with a constant water flow rate. The solid fraction and the size distributions of the primary grains along the vertical and horizontal positions of the cast ingots were measured individually. The macro-segregation was examined in terms of the distribution of the solid fraction. The yields of the ingots were calculated for studying the efficiency of the cooling slope technique. The effects of the three process parameters on the microstructures, macro-segregation, and yields were studied by the Taguchi method.