Carlos Silva Ribeiro

The effect of preconditioning treatments on the control and improvement of spheroidal graphite iron (SGI) microstructure was evaluated. In the melt, 0.15% of Zr-(Ca, Al) FeSi preconditioner was added into different conditions. Four samples were produced for this investigation: (1) in the first melt, there was no addition of a preconditioner for comparative purposes; (2) in the second melt, the preconditioner was added at the cold charge; (3) in the third melt, the preconditioner was added before the last cold charge; and (4) in the fourth melt, the preconditioner was added at tapping from the furnace. Microstructural characterization was conducted to understand the effect of the treatment on the SGI. Optical microscopy results show that preconditioning treatment increases graphite’s nodule density, ferrite content, and nodularity. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive energy (EDS), and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis were used to identify the types of microparticles present in the graphite nodules. Some complex microparticles were identified as AlMg_2.5Si_2.5N₆, MgS, and CaS. The microstructural characteristics of the matrix, such as grain size, crystallographic orientation, and misorientation, were also evaluated by the EBSD. The addition of the preconditioning at tapping results in a higher ferrite fraction, smaller grain size, misorientation, and hardness values. This work suggests that the different preconditioning practice has a crucial effect on the microstructural characteristics of the SGI. This knowledge is vital, allowing the microstructure tailoring to enhance the mechanical properties of SGI to obtain the best performance of these materials.

The production of aluminium metal matrix composites (AlMMCs) is noteworthy for obtaining enhanced mechanical and/or physical properties such as a high strength-to-weight ratio, high stiffness, high wear resistance, and higher thermal conductivity or modified coefficient of thermal expansion

Machining operations of cast parts usually generate considerable amounts of waste in the form of chips (usually 3–5% of the casting weight). Traditionally, swarf is sold to scrapers and remelters, but this option is quite expensive because the selling price is roughly 30% of the acquisition price of the commercial 2nd melt raw material. For most aluminium foundries that incorporate machining operations in their products, reusing aluminium chips as raw material for the melting stocks is perhaps the best option as waste management policy in what concerns to economical and technical aspects. Nevertheless, aluminium swarf is a low density product (0.25 kg/dm³) and is usually covered by a thin film of aluminium oxide and machining fluid. Melting such a product without suitable previous preparation leads to very low metal recovery rates, high energy consumption, gases and smoke generation and very low quality of the final product. During the last years, the authors have developed a high efficient and environmentally friend aluminium swarf recycling technique, using direct incorporation in aluminium melts. The influence of processing parameters, namely melt temperature and holding time, melting atmosphere, swarf briquetting pressure and melting charge composition in the metal recovery yield and dross generation was studied and characterized, and the optimal processing parameters were established. The microstructure of the final product obtained in those conditions was evaluated and is also presented. It is shown that the recycling efficiency depends on the swarf conditioning, the melting technique and the melt treatment methodology. Swarf moisture reduction, induction melting under protective atmosphere and a specially developed degassing technique were found the most important factors influencing the recycling process. By using the developed technique, cast ingots with microstructure and sanity similar to commercially available AlSi12Cu1 2nd melt raw material were successfully obtained with minimal dross formation and metal recovery rates around 90%, without using traditional salts and fluxes.

During the last years a very significant effort to develop a melting crucible for induction melting of Ti based alloys at competitive cost has been carried out by many researchers, where the authors are included. Results obtained so far have shown that no material accomplishes the melting crucibles two main demands: inertness facing titanium alloys and suitable/enough thermal-shock resistance. Until now, yttrium and calcium oxides were those materials that performed best on what concerns to thermodynamic stability. However, in both cases, crucibles thermal-shock resistance was very poor, and there are references to crucibles that cracked during melting. Besides, calcium oxide reveals manipulation problems, due to its high higroscopicity. This paper concerns to the evaluation of zircon based crucibles with Y₂O₃ inner layer for induction melting of TiAl based alloys. A novel multi layered crucible production technique based in a centrifugally assisted slip casting process followed by a sintering operation is described, and results concerning to crucibles porosity and wall composition and morphology are presented. Crucibles obtained in different processing conditions were used to melt a Ti48Al alloy which was poured in graphite moulds. Experimental results include alloy chemical contamination with residual elements, mainly yttrium and oxygen, microhardness measurement and the presence of yttrium oxide and zircon inclusions in the cast samples. Results concerning to the crucibles behaviour are also presented with particular attention to cracks development. The Y₂O₃ crucible layer was found to suffer some erosion and be slightly dissolved by the molten alloy and the extent of those phenomena depends on the porosity of the layer surface, for fixed experimental melting conditions.

Melting TiAl based alloys in ceramic crucibles often leads to chemical contamination, alloy heterogeneity and non-metallic inclusions. The severity of such phenomena usually depends on the nature of crucible materials, the melting stock composition and the melting parameters, namely superheating time and temperature and melting pressure. Among the referred drawbacks, Al loss during melting is a critical aspect, as its concentration in TiAl based alloys has a very strong effect in their mechanical properties. Although a few studies of critical factors affecting the evaporation behaviour of Al during electron beam and induction skull melting of Ti-Al alloys had been carried out, until now no information was released on this subject for the ceramic crucible induction melting process. In this work a Ti-48Al alloy was induction melted in a zircon crucible with Y₂O₃ inner layer, using 50 and 100 °C superheating temperatures and 0, 60 and 90 second holding times, and poured into a graphite mould. The effect of different temperature/time combinations in the alloy composition, Al loss by evaporation and extent of the metal/crucible interaction was studied for different melting pressures. Al loss was found to increase significantly for melting pressures below around 10^-1 mbar, at a rate that increases as melting pressure decreases, until a maximum rate is reached, remaining constant for lower pressure levels. Metal/crucible interaction increased directly with the melting pressure and superheating time, leading to alloy contamination with yttrium and oxygen. For the experimental set-up and conditions used on this work, optimal superheating time/pressure combinations that lead to acceptable alloy composition and sanity have been identified.

During the last years aluminium alloys have been gaining increased acceptance as structural materials in the automotive and aeronautical industries, mainly due to their light weight, good formability and corrosion resistance. However, improvement of mechanical properties is a constant in research activities, either by the development of new alloys or by microstructure manipulation. This presentation focuses a novel effective dynamic methodology to perform microstructural refinement / modification and degassing of light alloys, namely aluminium alloys, by applying acoustic energy to the melts. High intensity acoustic energy significantly improves the microstructure, therefore the mechanical properties of those alloys, avoiding the use of traditional chemically based degassing and refining techniques which are less effective and present significant environmental impact. Ultrasonic (US) vibration has proven to be extremely effective in degassing, controlling columnar dendritic structure, reducing the size of equiaxed grains and, under some conditions, producing globular grains and modifying the eutectic silicon cells in Al-Si alloys. The mechanisms of US processing of aluminium melts are discussed and experimental results on this field are presented.