Influence of Melt Quality on the Formation of Fe Intermetallic in A360 Alloy

Abstract

The solubility of Fe in aluminium alloys is known to be a problem in the casting of aluminium alloys. Due to the formation of various intermetallic phases, the mechanical properties decrease. Therefore, it is important to determine the formation mechanisms of such intermetallic. In this work, A360 alloy was used, and Fe additions were made. The alloy was cast into the sand and die moulds that consisted of three different thicknesses. In this way, the effect of the cooling rate was investigated. The holding time was selected to be 5 hours and every hour, a sample was collected from the melt for microstructural analysis. Additionally, the melt quality change was also examined by means of using a reduced pressure test where the bifilm index was measured. It was found that the iron content was increased after 2 hours of holding and the melt quality was decreased. There was a correlation between the duration and bifilm index. The size of Al-Si-Mn-Fe phases was increased in parallel with the bifilm content regardless of the iron content.

Keywords

• a360
• fe intermetallic
• melt quality
• cooling rate