Improvement of mechanical properties of HPDC A356 alloy through melt quenching process.

Abstract

Melt quenched high pressure die casting (MQ-HPDC) is a new die casting process developed recently for improving the casting quality of the conventional high pressure die casting (HPDC) process. In the MQ-HPDC process, an alloy melt with a specified dose and superheat is quenched by directly pouring the alloy melt into a preheated metallic container. The thermal mass and preheating temperature of the container is selected so that the alloy melt is quenched just below the alloy liquidus and heterogeneous nucleation takes place during the melt quenching. The quenched alloy melt is then fed immediately into the shot sleeve for component casting. In this paper we present the MQ-HPDC process and the resultant microstructures and mechanical properties of a MQ-HPDC A356 alloy.