Cast and Rapidly Solidified Aluminium Alloy with the Addition of Deep-sea Nodules

Abstract

Reduced deep-sea nodules were tested as the alloying mixture for cast and rapidly solidified aluminium alloy. No separation of any metal was used in order to save the processing costs of the deep-sea nodules and to obtain "natural" ratios between the alloying elements. The resulting rapidly solidified alloys contained sharp-edged intermetallics, especially Al9Mn3Si phase, which was converted to rounded Al19Mn4 during thermal exposure. The hardness of the ribbons was almost stable during long-term annealing at 300 and 400 °C for 250 h. The alloy can be considered as highly thermally stable.