Rapid solidification of Co-Si alloys was investigated by using vacuum suction casting in this study. Different microstructures and intermediate phases were obtained. Eutectic εCo phase and eutectoid εCo + αCo2Si structures were obtained in the first eutectic Co76.9Si23.1 alloy. The microstructures of hypereutectic Co70Si30 alloys were composed of primary αCo2Si phase and interdendritic lamellar eutectoid εCo + αCo2Si. While for hypoeutectic Co63Si37 alloy at the second eutectic point, CoSi dendrites were the primary phase, and αCo2Si+CoSi eutectoid structures can be seen at the interdendritic region. Especially, a metastable CoSi2 phase was found in Co63Si37 alloy. This indicates that eutectoid decomposition βCo2Si→ CoSi+αCo2Si is restrained in eutectic Co60.3Si39.7 alloy. For rapid solidified Co55Si45 and Co52Si48 alloys, αCo2Si+CoSi eutectoid structures were not observed, while metastable CoSi2 were obtained. The higher hardness achieved in Co-Si alloys at the second eutectic point, for the reason of the higher volume fractions of compound phases.
Effect of the processing parameters on the microstructure and properties of the ZL116 aluminium alloy after vacuum suction casting