Effect of billet reheating process and transfer system on workability in forging of semi-solid aluminum allay

The Semi Solid Processing has many processes such as billet production, reheating of billet, billet transfer to the die gate, injection of billet to the die cavity and solidification processing. The whole processings have many billet handlings and transfers. Therefore, the material transfer system is an important issue. For this purpose the new coupled system which the reheating devices are located just above the gate of die was proposed in this study and the numerical simulations were performed from the reheating process to the die filling and solidification analysis in two different gate shapes. The proposed billet transfer systems can reduce the operating temperature of reheating process and initial injection state by the less heat loss than the remote reheating device system. To ensure the validity of the automation efficiency, the induction heating were used in reheating process. The analysis of reheating process include the specific solid fraction control which play a key role in semi solid proceesing and various types of induction coils were considered. The experiments with simple products and numerical computation show the operational parameter of A356 semi solid aluminum alloy for new proposed material transfer system.