The grain refinement of 1070 alloy by different Al-Ti-B mater alloys and its influence on the electrical conductivity

Abstract

The excellent grain refinement effectiveness and good electrical conductivity is difficult to be simultaneously obtained due to the influence of both the grain boundary and excessive Ti in the usually used refiners, such as Al-5Ti-1B master alloy. In order to solve this problem, in this work, Al-Ti-B mater alloys with less or without excessive Ti but with high refinement potency TiB2 have been tried to prepare, and the grain refinement effectiveness of them and its influence on the electrical conductivity of the refined Al have been investigated. It is found that the grain refinement effectiveness of the Al-Ti-B master alloys prepared using the Al-5Ti-1B and Al-B master alloys as the starting materials at 720 °C is much better than those prepared using the Al-10Ti and Al-B master alloys, which is because that the high refinement potency TiB2 with TiAl3 2DC in the Al-5Ti-B can be kept in the prepared master alloys. As a result, using the prepared Al-Ti-B master alloys as the refiners, both the good grain refinement effectiveness and improved electrical conductivity of Al can be realized. Keywords: Grain refinement, Electrical conductivity, Al, Master alloys