Filling ability of semi-solid A356 aluminum alloy slurry and microstructure distribution

The filling ability of semi-solid A356 aluminum alloy slurry prepared by low superheating pouring and meanwhile electromagnetic stirring at a low power for a short time and the microstructure distribution in the rheo-diecast castings were investigated. The results show that the spherical primary α-AI grains are fine and the temperature distribution is uniform in the prepared slurries. Also the results indicate that the slurry temperature, the injection pressure and piston velocity have important effect on the filling ability of the prepared slurries, the higher slurry temperature, inject pressure and piston velocity are advantageous to the filling ability, the appropriate slurry temperature, inject pressure and piston velocity in this experiment are in the range of 585-595°C, 15-25 MPa and 0.072-0.12 m/s respectively. Morever the microstructure of the die castings is homogeneous and no obvious segregation is found.