Effect of thixoforming and precipitation hardening on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-6Si-4Cu-0.3Mg alloy produced by cooling slope casting

Jemat, Hillary (2024) Effect of thixoforming and precipitation hardening on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-6Si-4Cu-0.3Mg alloy produced by cooling slope casting. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

Text (Full Text) Effect of thixoforming and precipitation hardening on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-6Si-4Cu-0.3Mg alloy produced by cooling slope casting.pdf Download (3MB)

Abstract

This research is carried out to investigate and determine effect of thixoforming and precipitation hardening on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-6Si-4Cu 0.3Mg. A356 alloy will be used as the raw material for this project and cooling slope casting is used for the preparation of the non-dendritic structure feedstocks for thixoforming process. The Design of Experiment used is Taguchi Method with two factors of the cooling slope process which are pouring temperature and cooling slope length. The feedstocks obtained will be heated to semisolid temperature and maintained for 5 minutes for grain spheroidization before being thixoformed using a hydraulic cylinder press of 20 kN load. Then, some of the thixoformed parts undergoes T6 heat treatment by solutionizing at 525 ˚C for 8 hours, quenched in warm water at temperature of 60 ˚C followed by ageing at 155 ˚C for 4 hours. The microstructure of the alloy is then studied by carried out several material characterization processes including Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray and X-ray Diffraction Analysis. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of thixoformed and thixoformed T6 alloys are investigated by hardness test and tensile test based on ASTM: E8M04 standard. Thixoforming and T6 heat treatment process are expected to refine the alloy’s microstructure and enhance the mechanical properties of the alloy. Thus, the defects on the alloy can be reduce or eliminated.

Actions (login required)

View Item