Effect of Non-Conventional Aging Treatments on the Tensile Properties and Quality Indices of Hipped Components Made of Cast Aluminum Alloy 354

Abstract:

Cast aluminum alloy 354 is used extensively for production of critical automobile component, owing to its excellent castability and attractive combination of mechanical properties. With the advent of higher performance engines, there has been a steady demand to further improve the mechanical behavior of the alloy, among others, through improvements in processing. The present study explores the possibility of improving mechanical behavior and quality levels of the alloy by adopting certain non-conventional aging treatments. Quality indices Q and Q_C have been used for quality rating. 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 the non-conventional treatments leads to improvement of all tensile properties compared to the standard T61 treatment. However, some specific treatments could be identified which lead to a comparable combination of tensile properties and a shade higher quality level. Increasing the time of preceding natural aging does not help in improving the tensile properties after artificial aging.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 875-877)
• Pages: 1429-1436
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.875-877.1429
• Online since: February 2014
• Authors: G. Dinesh Babu, Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati
• Keywords: Cast Aluminum Alloy 354, Compressor Wheel, Non-Conventional Aging Treatments, Quality Indices, Tensile Properties

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