Mould

filling ability and mechanical properties of

SIMA produced 7075
Eray Erzi 1 , Caglar Yuksel2 , Özen Gürsoy 1 , Derya Dispinar1
eerzi@istanbul.edu.tr cyuksel@yildiz.edu.tr ozen.gursoy@gmail.com deryad@istanbul.edu.tr
1
Istanbul University, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, 34320 Avcilar, Turkey
2 Yildiz Technical University, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, 34220, Davutpasa, Turkey

ABSTRACT

Aluminum alloys are one of the preferred materials especially at land and air transportation because of their high strength and low de nsity properties. Although
production using casting method is economi cal it has some disadvantages. Shrinkage which is occurred due to the density difference between the solid and
liquid metal is prevented by feeders. Liquid metal should be transferred to the mould without causing any turbulence. As a result, sprues are needed to be
designed precisely. Aluminu m alloys can also be s haped with forging at semi solid temperatures. There are some advantages compared to the traditional forging
methods like improving die life be cause of the lower tonnage values. In this stu dy, semi s olid prod uced 7075 alu minu m alloy’s die filling capabilities were
investigated. After determining the optimum parameters, metallographic analysis, density calculations, porosity distribution and tensile tests were made.

OBJECTIVE is to investigate to fill capabilities of die for semi-solid produced 7075.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Table 1: Chemical composition of 7075 alloy.

Alloy Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Cr Zn Ti

A356 0,4 0,5 2 0,3 2,9 0,28 6,1 0,2

Ø This alloy was provided as 30 mm extruded rods and samples were produced from
these rods. Produced sample bars has 30 mm diameter and 85 mm length. total of
15 sample bars were produced.

Ø Samples were placed on to the molds and heated up to 635 °C degree and heat
treated for 30 minutes together in VULCAN 3-550 chamber furnace and tried to Fig. 3: Weibull analys is .

produce semisolid structure from 7075 aluminum alloys.

Ø Mold and the semisolid sample were taken from the furnace as is and pressed with
5 tonnepress machine while sample and the mold are still at this temperature and
tried to fill the mold with semisolid metal.

Ø T6 heat treatment process were carried out to the samples at 481 °C for 1 hour
and later solution treated for 12 hours at 121 °C. Then densities of the samples
were measured by Archimed principle.

Fig. 4: Differance between theorical dens ity and meas ured dens ities .

q Density difference between the theorical density and the spanner samples
density after SIMA process were calculated as %1.7. But the results are
highly oscilating. After machining the differance is approximately % 0.79.
Especially these differances are clearly be seen in the samples 1,4,7 and 8.
Scattered density results changed after machining and the densities of the
samples produced from the bottem of the mold has % 1 scatter which is very
Fig. 1: Diamentions and picture of the AISI 1040 s teel mold.
low and produced more reproducible results.

CONCLUSIONS q the SIMA produced 7075 alloys tensile strength is approximately measured
386 MPa. This result obtained from the 7 of the15 samples (% 49) that were
produced. The remaining 8 of the samples were crack ed right after the test
load was applied and the results were immature.

conclusions

Fig. 5: W eibull analys is of the tens ile tes t res ults of SIMA produced s amples .

Fig. 2: Comperation of the dens ities after SIMA proces s and after machining.
q Weibull modulus for tensile tests are calculated as 17.9.
q Densities of the spanner samples after SIMA process are quite low. But the densities q Characteristic value of s o is calculated as 454.1 MPa according to the
of the machined tensile test specimens were higher. The main reason of this is the weibull analysis.
position of the tensile test specimens.
REFERENCES
1. Fl emi n gs M .C . B eh avi o r o f metal al l o ys i n th e semi so l i d state. M etal l Tran s B 1 9 9 1 ; 2 2 A: 9 5 7 –8 1 .
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