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Cooling slope casting to obtain thixotropic feedstock II: observations with A356 alloy

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Abstract

New Rheocasting (NRC) is a recently developed semisolid processing route. There are two versions of this route. In one, molten alloy is poured directly into a mould and through careful temperature control during cooling a spheroidal semisolid microstructure is achieved, before the material in the mould is upended into a shot sleeve and hence forced into a die. Alternatively, the molten alloy is poured onto a cooling slope and thence into a mould before processing. The aim of the work described in this paper, and its companion, was to develop the understanding of the microstructural development during the initial stages of this process, i.e. in the mould before processing and with the cooling slope/mould combination. In the previous paper, an analogue system based on aqueous ammonium chloride has been used to visualise what happens when an alloy is poured into a tilted mould with a chill wall, which acts to mimic the mould and the cooling slope in the NRC process. In this companion paper, the results for pouring A356 aluminium alloy directly into a mould, and also via a cooling slope into a mould, are presented.

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Acknowledgements

E.C.L. would like to acknowledge financial support provided by CONACyt and SEP and also the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo for support. The authors are grateful to the Department of Engineering Materials at the University of Sheffield for the provision of laboratory facilities. In addition, we would like to thank Prof. T. Haga who built the initial version of cooling slope equipment at Sheffield University during a sabbatical period from the University of Osaka, and Dr. Plato Kapranos and Dr. Worawit Jirattiticharoean for experimental assistance. H.V.A. would like to thank the University of Leicester for sabbatical leave.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones en Materiales y Metalurgia, Cuidad Universitaria, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Carretera Pachuca-Tulancingo Km. 4.5, Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico

    E. Cardoso Legoretta

  2. Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK

    E. Cardoso Legoretta & H. Jones

  3. Department of Engineering, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

    H. V. Atkinson

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  1. E. Cardoso Legoretta
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  2. H. V. Atkinson
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  3. H. Jones
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Correspondence to H. V. Atkinson.

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Legoretta, E.C., Atkinson, H.V. & Jones, H. Cooling slope casting to obtain thixotropic feedstock II: observations with A356 alloy. J Mater Sci 43, 5456–5469 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-008-2829-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-008-2829-1

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