EVOLUTION OF AS—CAST MICROSTRUCTURES OF 356 ALUMINIUM ALLOY CAST BY LIQUIDUS CASTING

A new method (liquidus casting) was used for 356 Al alloy semi-solid slurry mak-ing. The structures of 356 Al alloy cast by a Fe mould and semi-continuous castingmachine at different temperatures were investigated. How the globular grains formwas also discussed. The results show that either being cast by single Fe mould orsemi-continuous machine, the microstructures are not conventional dendrites but fineand net-globular grains. The average grain size is smaller than 30μm and suitableenough for thixoforming, meanwhile it can improve the mechanical properties of fol-lowing products. Under the suitable casting velocity and cooling intensity, most ofglobal grains prolong their global growth and collide with each other before dendriticgrowth because of the large amount of the nucleation sites.