Meltless recycling technique has been utilized to overcome the lack of primary resources, focusing on reducing the usage of energy and materials. Hot press was proposed as a novel direct recycling technique which results in astoundingly low energy usage in contrast with conventional recycling. The aim of this study is to prove the technical feasibility of this approach by characterizing the recycled samples. For this purpose, AA6061 aluminium chips were recycled by utilizing hot press process under various operating temperature (Ts = 430, 480, and 530 °C) and holding times (ts = 60, 90, and 120 min). The maximum mechanical properties of recycled chip are Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) = 266.78 MPa, Elongation to failure (ETF) = 16.129%, while, for surface integrity of the chips, the calculated microhardness is 81.744 HV, exhibited at Ts = 530 °C and ts = 120 min. It is comparable to theoretical AA6061 T4-temper where maximum UTS and microhardness is increased up to 9.27% and 20.48%, respectively. As the desired mechanical properties of forgings can only be obtained by means of a final heat treatment, T5-temper, aging after forging process was employed. Heat treated recycled billet AA6061 (T5-temper) are considered comparable with as-received AA6061 T6, where the value of microhardness (98.649 HV) at 175 °C and 120 min of aging condition was revealed to be greater than 3.18%. Although it is quite early to put a base mainly on the observations in experimental settings, the potential for significant improvement offered by the direct recycling methods for production aluminium scrap can be clearly demonstrated. This overtures perspectives for industrial development of solid state recycling processes as environmentally benign alternatives of current melting based practices.
A method of solid-state recycling aluminum alloy using hot press forging process was studied as well as the possibility of the recycled chip to be used as secondary resources. This paper presents the results of recycled AA6061 aluminium alloy chip using different operating temperature for hot press forging process. Mechanical properties and microstructure of the recycled specimens and as-received (reference) specimen were investigated. The recycled specimens exhibit a good potential in the strength properties. The result for yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) at the minimum temperature 430°C is 25.8 MPa and 27.13 MPa. For the maximum operating temperature 520°C YS and UTS are 107.0MPa and 117.53 MPa. Analysis for different operating temperatures shows that the higher temperatures giving better result on mechanical properties and finer microstructure. The strength of recycled specimen increases due to the grain refinement strengthening whereas particle dispersion strengthening has minor effects. In this study, the recycled AA6061 chip shows the good potential in strengthening as the comparison of using only 17.5% of suggested pressure (70.0/400.0) MPa, the UTS exhibit 35.8% (117.58/327.69) MPa. This shows a remarkable potential of direct recycling by using hot press forging process.
This article provides an intensive review of the past and current research work on the solid-state recycling of light metals. The review includes an experimental aspect of the relevant works that clearly clarify the effects of several critical factors noted as chip preparation, reinforcing phases, die geometry, process parameter selection and performance of miscellaneous methods over the quality of the extruded profiles. Likewise, reviews of numerical and analytical works on the solid-state recycling were presented to understand the strengthening phenomena of chip-based billet through the plastic deformation. Finally, concluding remarks underline challenges of direct recycling method and subsequently highlight the potential future work on making the method as a promising alternative for sustainable manufacturing agenda.
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