Recent Developments of Rheo-Diecast Components for Transportation Markets

Semi-solid processing (SSP), including rheoforming and thixoforming, offers a promising opportunity to manufacture net-shaped parts with complex structure and excellent mechanical properties. Owing to its low cost and short process, rheoforming has been the subject of extensive study over the last two decades. The interest in the rheoforming of wrought aluminum alloys is progressively growing among both the research and industrial communities. This review starts with reviewing the recent efforts and advances on preparation of semi-solid slurry of wrought Al alloys, followed by discussing the correlation between microstructure and performance of these alloys. Finally, special attention is paid in the industrial application and the future trends of rheoforming of wrought aluminum alloys.

Section: Methods Of Slurry Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Progress in Rheoforming of Wrought Aluminum Alloys: A Review

Gan

et al. 2020

“…Moving on to applications utilizing high fraction solid feedstock via the SEED process [12], shown schematically in Figure 4, a number of automotive parts have been produced, see Figure 5. The component on the left, shown in Figure 5, is aluminum 319S at T6 condition, which has replaced a steel part resulting in a weight reduction of 65%, while the one next to it has replaced a steel part with a 71% weight saving [34]. A recent comparison between SSM Die-casting and Squeeze casting using the main bearing cap of an engine block as the comparative product has demonstrated that the combination of slurry flow and resulting microstructures have a significant effect on the resulting properties, with SSM products exhibiting finer grain sizes as well as a doubling in E% [35].…”

Section: Present Ssm Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second important aspect of large-scale commercialization of SSMDC will be an expanding portfolio of alloys of consistent quality and appropriate microstructures without any premium production costs attached to them. This is commercially feasible, as applications in other than the currently perceived limited range of 'standard' SSM alloys are already proving to be commercial successes [14,23,24,[29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Section: Future Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SSMDC has provided plenty of evidence of its ability to deliver large-scale mass-produced, high performance, complex near net-shape parts. These are offered at competitive costs as a number of case studies prove [14,23,24,[29][30][31][32][33][34]40]. Already, manufacturers with an eye to a sustainable future are looking to exciting opportunities in traditional and non-traditional markets [44][45][46][47], as illustrated by the various parts shown in Figures 9-13.…”

Section: Future Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Current State of Semi-Solid Net-Shape Die Casting

Kapranos

2019

Semi-solid processing of alloys is nearing the end of its fifth decade in existence. This promising manufacturing route has undergone a number of changes over the past five decades and apart from certain successful industrial applications, it appeared that it had become a niche technology with limited applications, notably in the automotive and consumer product markets. Nevertheless, despite the strong competition of traditional casting and in particular die-casting processes, and the emergence of Additive Manufacturing (AM), there seems to be a resurgence in demand for Net-Shape Die Casting of Semi-solid alloys as testified by the high numbers of delegates at the 15th SSM Conference at Shenzhen, China in September 2018. What follows is a brief review of the historical development of the process as well as more recent developments with an eye to future prospects.

“…Recently, SSP has also been categorized into two further processes according to the solid fraction content of the slurries: the high solid fraction process with about 40-60% of solid, and the low solid fraction process with around 5-20% of solid [5]. The thixoforming route belongs to the high solid fraction processes, while most of the rheocasting routes used, such as the gas-induced semisolid (GISS) rheocasting [6], new rheocasting (NRC) [7], air-cooled stirring rod (ACSR) process [8], forced convection stirring (FCS) [9], and so forth, are low solid fraction processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooling Behavior and Microstructure of Semisolid A201 Aluminum Alloy Prepared by the SEED Process

Gao

Zhu

et al. 2019

The biggest challenge in semisolid processing of high-performance aluminum alloys is the narrow temperature processing windows of these alloys, and as a result, the preparation of qualified semisolid slurries is very important. High solid fraction slurries of high-strength A201 alloy were prepared by the Swirled Enthalpy Equilibration Device (SEED) process. The cooling behavior and microstructures of the A201 slurries produced by the standard, as well as a modified, SEED process were investigated. The results show that qualified A201 slurry can be produced by decreasing the pouring temperature and controlling the processing time in the SEED process. The modified SEED process significantly reduced the radial temperature gradient of the melt, due to the slow cooling rates involved, with the resulting slurries being more uniform, with more spherical microstructures, as compared to those produced by the standard SEED process. The formation of the nondendritic grain structure in the SEED process is attributed to the uniformly distributed large number of nuclei within the melt and the slow cooling of the melt in the containing crucible.