THE OPTIMIZING CONDITIONS BY TAGUCHI METHOD FOR FABRICATING SEMI-SOLID Al–Zn–Mg ALLOY SLURRY BY COOLING PLATE METHOD
In order to optimize the condition for the semi-solid Al–Zn–Mg aluminium alloy fabricated by cooling plate method, the Taguchi design was used. The cooling plate method effectively separating the grains formed from the mold wall can be used to form a semi-solid material by flowing molten metal over an inclined Cu plate and casting in a mold for the near-net shape component. In Taguchi's design method, the higher signal vs noise (S/N) ratio the better. Therefore, the manufacturing conditions were arranged as a table of orthogonal arrays (L9(34)), and the influence of two factors, pouring temperature and cooling plate angle, was examined. From the observed microstructures, the grain size and aspect ratio were measured by image analyzer. The results indicated that the pouring temperature exerts the main effect on the spherical microstructures since the S/N ratio, which is the sensibility of the surrounding environment, was the highest. The optimum condition for the Al–Zn–Mg alloy was a cooling plate angle of 40° and a pouring temperature of 680°C. The grain size and aspect ratio were 70 μm and 1.3, respectively.