Effect of Pouring Temperature by a Novel Micro Fused-Casting on Microstructure and Properties of ZL101 Semisolid Slurry

Abstract

A novel micro fused-casting (MFC) process is developed for semisolid aluminum alloy slurry. The microstructure evolution and properties of semisolid ZL101 aluminum alloy slurry with different pouring temperature by MFC are investigated in this paper. During the cooling process, the effects of the pouring temperature on microstructure and properties is primarily analyzed. The microstructure of the semisolid ZL101 aluminum alloy is more homogeneous and the grain is smaller under proper pouring temperature. Temperature of liquids and solids of ZL101 aluminum alloy is measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Distribution and characteristics of the microstructure of samples are examined by optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The results show that the ZL101 semisolid slurry fabricated by MFC presents uniform shape and good grain size under the pouring temperature of 594 °C and the stirring velocity of 600 r/min, and the fine grains of the primary α-Al phase with average grain size of 55 μm and shape factor up to 0.67 were obtained. Besides, the ultimate tensile strength and the average Vickers hardness for semisolid ZL101 aluminum slurry are 178.19±1.37 MPa and 86.15±1.16 HV, respectively.

Keywords

ZL101 aluminum alloy / semisolid / micro fused-casting / pouring temperature

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