Effect of Non-Conventional Aging Treatments on the Tensile Properties of Non-Hipped Castings of Aluminum Alloy 354

Abstract:

Cast aluminum alloy 354 is used extensively for production of critical automobile components, owing to its excellent castability and attractive combination of mechanical properties after heat-treatment. With the advent of higher performance engines, there has been a steady demand to further improve the mechanical behavior of the castings made of the alloy, among others, through improvements in processing. The present study explores the possibility of improving tensile properties of the alloy by adopting certain non-conventional aging treatments. The non-conventional treatments include aging cycles similar to T6I4 and T6I6 referred to in the published literature, artificial aging in two steps instead of in single step and artificial aging preceded by various natural aging times. The results show that none of these non-conventional treatments leads to improvement of all tensile properties compared to the standard T61 treatment. Significant hardening takes place in the alloy due to natural aging. Changing the time of natural aging preceding artificial aging was found to have little effect on tensile properties.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 875-877)
• Pages: 1397-1405
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.875-877.1397
• Online since: February 2014
• Authors: G. Dinesh Babu, Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati
• Keywords: Cast Aluminum Alloy 354, Compressor Wheel, Non-Conventional Aging Treatments, Tensile Properties

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