Recently results were presented for an R & D program for handling the as-cast billets of an Al-Si-Mg A6060 Al alloy at the solutionizing heat treatment temperature. A reduction in the solutionizing temperature of ...Recently results were presented for an R & D program for handling the as-cast billets of an Al-Si-Mg A6060 Al alloy at the solutionizing heat treatment temperature. A reduction in the solutionizing temperature of the as-cast billets from 585℃ to 540℃ was found. This leads to substantial energy savings without lowering the quality of the final commercial Al profiles. The alloy was treated from the microstructural point of view as an Aluminum Metal-Matrix Composite (Al-MMC). Strengthening of the Al matrix grains during the process was quantified and measured by micro-Vickers hardness testing. A possible application of this is to apply the suggested lower temperature solutionizing process to billets stockpiled in the factory for some months. The alloy undergoes natural aging, a physical process at ambient temperature that alters its microstructural features. Does this aging affect the quality of the lower temperature solutionizing treated profiles? The effect of the natural aging by micro-Vickers hardness testing on some of the same samples of our original work stockpiled in our lab for 10 months was investigated. We applied, further, the Image-Pro Plus image processing software on them in an effort to collect microstructural data and compared them to values taken 10 months earlier. Also we tried an interconnection between the two experimental processes treating the alloy as an Al-MMC.展开更多
The aim of this study is to investigate the surface quality of the melt spinning wheel, which was changed from smooth type to textured structure, to atomize liquid metal to form powders. The effects of melt spinning p...The aim of this study is to investigate the surface quality of the melt spinning wheel, which was changed from smooth type to textured structure, to atomize liquid metal to form powders. The effects of melt spinning process parameters like wheel speed, gas ejection pressure, molten metal temperature, nozzle–wheel gap and wheel surface quality on the morphological and microstructural features of 6060 aluminum alloy powders and ribbons were investigated. It was observed that ribbon type material was obtained with the smooth wheel and the powder was produced with textured type. The sizes of produced ribbons with smooth surface wheel varied in the range of 30-170 μm in thickness, 4-8 mm in width, and 0.5-1 m in length. The average powder size of the powders manufactured using the textured wheel was in the range of 161-274 μm, depending on the process parameters.Increasing the wheel speed, melt temperature and decreasing gas ejection pressure, nozzle-wheel gap resulted in the decrease of both ribbon thickness and powder size. The microstructures of the powders and ribbons were the equiaxed cellular type, and the average grain sizes diminished with decreasing the ribbon thickness and powder size. The maximum cooling rates were 2.00×10^5 and 1.26×10^4 K/s for the ribbon with thickness of 30 μm and for the powder with size of 87 μm, respectively.展开更多
Heat treatable Al alloys of the 6xxx series are produced by the industry following a path that consolidates melting of raw materials, casting the melt in billets, solutionizing the billets following a suitable thermal...Heat treatable Al alloys of the 6xxx series are produced by the industry following a path that consolidates melting of raw materials, casting the melt in billets, solutionizing the billets following a suitable thermal cycle, pre-heating and extruding the material to profiles and finally aging the profiles. Although this procedure is known for pure materials from the scientific point of view, the introduction of scrap to the raw materials for melting modifies to an extent the fabrication conditions that follow casting. This fact affects the production cost. In this article we propose a research way based mainly on micro-Vickers tests that lead to an optimization of the treatment conditions for solutionizing the billets.展开更多
文摘Recently results were presented for an R & D program for handling the as-cast billets of an Al-Si-Mg A6060 Al alloy at the solutionizing heat treatment temperature. A reduction in the solutionizing temperature of the as-cast billets from 585℃ to 540℃ was found. This leads to substantial energy savings without lowering the quality of the final commercial Al profiles. The alloy was treated from the microstructural point of view as an Aluminum Metal-Matrix Composite (Al-MMC). Strengthening of the Al matrix grains during the process was quantified and measured by micro-Vickers hardness testing. A possible application of this is to apply the suggested lower temperature solutionizing process to billets stockpiled in the factory for some months. The alloy undergoes natural aging, a physical process at ambient temperature that alters its microstructural features. Does this aging affect the quality of the lower temperature solutionizing treated profiles? The effect of the natural aging by micro-Vickers hardness testing on some of the same samples of our original work stockpiled in our lab for 10 months was investigated. We applied, further, the Image-Pro Plus image processing software on them in an effort to collect microstructural data and compared them to values taken 10 months earlier. Also we tried an interconnection between the two experimental processes treating the alloy as an Al-MMC.
文摘The aim of this study is to investigate the surface quality of the melt spinning wheel, which was changed from smooth type to textured structure, to atomize liquid metal to form powders. The effects of melt spinning process parameters like wheel speed, gas ejection pressure, molten metal temperature, nozzle–wheel gap and wheel surface quality on the morphological and microstructural features of 6060 aluminum alloy powders and ribbons were investigated. It was observed that ribbon type material was obtained with the smooth wheel and the powder was produced with textured type. The sizes of produced ribbons with smooth surface wheel varied in the range of 30-170 μm in thickness, 4-8 mm in width, and 0.5-1 m in length. The average powder size of the powders manufactured using the textured wheel was in the range of 161-274 μm, depending on the process parameters.Increasing the wheel speed, melt temperature and decreasing gas ejection pressure, nozzle-wheel gap resulted in the decrease of both ribbon thickness and powder size. The microstructures of the powders and ribbons were the equiaxed cellular type, and the average grain sizes diminished with decreasing the ribbon thickness and powder size. The maximum cooling rates were 2.00×10^5 and 1.26×10^4 K/s for the ribbon with thickness of 30 μm and for the powder with size of 87 μm, respectively.
文摘Heat treatable Al alloys of the 6xxx series are produced by the industry following a path that consolidates melting of raw materials, casting the melt in billets, solutionizing the billets following a suitable thermal cycle, pre-heating and extruding the material to profiles and finally aging the profiles. Although this procedure is known for pure materials from the scientific point of view, the introduction of scrap to the raw materials for melting modifies to an extent the fabrication conditions that follow casting. This fact affects the production cost. In this article we propose a research way based mainly on micro-Vickers tests that lead to an optimization of the treatment conditions for solutionizing the billets.
