Electromagnetic Continuous Casting of Free-Shaped Aluminum Billet

Abstract

A free-shaped aluminum alloy billet, not round or squared shaped, was usally manufactued by the conventional direct chill casting. A new method and apparatus for the fabrication of high-quality, free-shaped aluminum billets is developed by the combination of continuous casting and electromagnetic casting/stirring technique(EMC & EMS). A new proposed process for the fabrication of free-shaped aluminum billets offers some advantages: the process of extrusion and forging is simplified and the cost of plastic working can be greatly reduced. In order to reduce the paticular problems such as the surface crack and internal defect due to the inhomogeneous cooling of billets during solidification, the electromagnetic casting and stirring technique were adopted in this paper. Sectional cooling system improves the homogeneity of microstructure. The effect of electromagnetic field was compared by observing the microstructure of billets. Grain refinement of aluminum billet was clearly observed by applying electromagnetic field to continuous casting process.