Production and Subsequent Forming of Chip-Based Aluminium Sheets Without Remelting

Bent components and deep drawn cups are produced by direct usage of aluminium chips without melting following a new process chain: hot extrusion of aluminium chips to a cylindrical open profile, flattening, subsequent rolling and bending or deep drawing. The properties of the hot extruded chip-based AA6060 sheets are examined by tensile tests and microstructural investigations and the results are compared with those obtained from material extruded from conventional cast billets. The chip-based sheets were used to form components by bending or deep drawing. No significant differences between the bent components or deep-drawn cups made of chips and those from cast material are observed regarding their capability for further plastic forming operations. This makes the new process route a resource-efficient alternative for the production of aluminium sheet products.

The Applicability of Die Cast A356 Alloy to Additive Friction Stir Deposition at Various Feeding Speeds

In the current investigation, additive friction stir-deposition (AFS-D) of as-cast hypoeutectic A356 Al alloy was conducted. The effect of feeding speeds of 3, 4, and 5 mm/min at a constant rotational speed of 1200 rpm on the macrostructure, microstructure, and hardness of the additive manufacturing parts (AMPs) was investigated. Various techniques (OM, SEM, and XRD) were used to evaluate grain microstructure, presence phases, and intermetallics for the as-cast material and the AMPs. The results showed that the friction stir deposition technique successfully produced sound additive manufactured parts at all the applied feeding speeds. The friction stir deposition process significantly improved the microstructure of the as-cast alloy by eliminating porosity and refining the dendritic α-Al grains, eutectic Si phase, and the primary Si plates in addition to intermetallic fragmentation. The mean values of the grain size of the produced AMPs at the feeding speeds of 3, 4, and 5 mm/min were 0.62 ± 0.1, 1.54 ± 0.2, and 2.40 ± 0.15 µm, respectively, compared to the grain size value of 30.85 ± 2 for the as-cast alloy. The AMPs exhibited higher hardness values than the as-cast A356 alloy. The as-cast A356 alloy showed highly scattered hardness values between 55 and 75.8 VHN. The AMP fabricated at a 3 mm/min feeding speed exhibited the maximum hardness values between 88 and 98.1 VHN.

Analysis of direct metal laser sintering ‒ DMLS and heat treatment influence on the Inconel 713C nickel alloy structure

The group of nickel based superalloys produced in the DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) process is limited to materials, which produced conventionally do not have properties to allow to use them for rotating components of aircraft engines. This work attempts to optimize the technological parameters of the DMLS process for the Inconel 713C nickel superalloy. A heat treatment was performed for selected samples to investigate the effect on the morphology of the Ni3Al phase. The microstructure analysis and hardness tests were carried out. The material after the DMLS process was characterized by the presence of much smaller dendrites than the cast material and exceeded its hardness. For the tested variants of heat treatment, the material was characterized by smaller sizes of the Ni3Al phase. In order to ensure the stability of the microstructure, an optimization of the dedicated heat treatment after the DMLS process is required, as the standard heat treatment for Inconel 713C cast nickel superalloy does not fully recrystallize the material.

Dynamic properties of hybrid machine tool body – Theoretical and experimental investigation

The article presents theoretical and experimental investigation in order to obtain dynamic properties of hybrid machine tool body in comparison with cast iron body. For this purpose, the theoretical and experimental modal analyses were carried out. The influence of the mineral cast material for filling voids on the dynamic properties of the machine tool body was discussed. During the analysis, the modes and frequencies of free vibrations, the amplitude values and the damping ratios were compared. Despite lowering the free vibration frequency of the hybrid construction, compared to the cast iron body, in some cases, the dynamic properties were affected. This could be determined on the basis of decreasing the amplitude value of the transfer function (from 12.16% to 58.66%) and the increasing the vibration damping coefficient ratio (from 12.22% to 75.24%) in the case of a hybrid body as compared to a cast iron body. The final conclusions were drawn about the application of mineral casts in the construction of machine tools and its impact on the dynamic properties of the structure.

Influence of Processing Route on the Surface Reactivity of Cu47Ti33Zr11Ni6Sn2Si1 Metallic Glass

Recently, laser additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have emerged as a promising alternative for the synthesis of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with massively increased freedom in part size and geometry, thus extending their economic applicability of this material class. Nevertheless, porosity, compositional inhomogeneity, and crystallization display themselves to be the emerging challenges for this processing route. The impact of these “defects” on the surface reactivity and susceptibility to corrosion was seldom investigated but is critical for the further development of 3D-printed BMGs. This work compares the surface reactivity of cast and additively manufactured (via laser powder bed fusion—LPBF) Cu47Ti33Zr11Ni6Sn2Si1 metallic glass after 21 days of immersion in a corrosive HCl solution. The cast material presents lower oxygen content, homogeneous chemical distribution of the main elements, and the surface remains unaffected after the corrosion experimentation based on vertical scanning interferometry (VSI) investigation. On the contrary, the LPBF material presents a considerably higher reactivity seen through crack propagations on the surface. It exhibits higher oxygen content, heterogeneous chemical distribution, and presence of defects (porosity and cracks) generated during the manufacturing process.

A Comparative Study on the Hot Deformation Behavior of As-Cast and Twin-Roll Cast Mg-6.8Y-2.5Zn-0.4Zr Alloy

The Mg-6.8Y-2.5Zn-0.4Zr (WZ73) alloy exhibits different microstructure characteristic after conventional casting compared to the twin-roll cast (TRC) state. Twin-roll casting results in a finer microstructure, where the LPSO phases are more finely distributed and less strongly connected. A transfer of the hot deformation behavior from the as-cast condition to the TRC condition is only possible to a limited extent due to the microstructural differences. Both states show differences in the recrystallization behavior during hot deformation. In the conventional cast state, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) is assumed to be delayed by the occurrence of coarse blocky LPSO phases. Main DRX mechanisms are continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX), particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) and twin induced dynamic recrystallization (TDRX). The deformed TRC sample showed pronounced DRX at almost all deformation conditions. Besides the TDRX and the PSN mechanism, kink induced dynamic recrystallization (KDRX) can be observed. Optimum deformation conditions for both states are temperatures from 500 °C to 520 °C, and strain rates ranging from 0.01 s−1 to 0.1 s−1 for the as-cast material as well as a strain rate of 1 s−1 for the TRC material.

The effect of homogenization on microstructure and hardness of a large-scale high-aluminum Al4.4Co26Cr18Fe18Ni26Ti5.5 Compositionally Complex Alloy cast

As any largescale cast material, specific Compositionally Complex Alloys or High Entropy Superalloys contain segregations, leading to unideal, inhomogeneous properties. This work presents the effects of a homogenization heat treatment at 1 150°C for 6 h of a large-scale cast Al4.4Co26Cr18Fe18Ni26Ti5.5 alloy. In order to reveal these effects, homogenized specimens were analyzed and compared to the as-cast state with regard to chemical homogeneity as well as the homogeneity of elemental solution by means of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy as well as X-ray diffraction and hardness measurements. Despite the increased Al content, intermetallic phases and segregations, observable in the as-cast state, dissolve during homogenization. Improved, but not full homogeneity of elemental distribution after annealing can be determined. The improved state of solution and homogeneity agrees with the increasing lattice parameter from 3.572 Å to 3.594 Å and the decreasing hardness from 320.3 HV10 to 245.2 HV10 during homogenization.

Management of Posidonia Oceanica Leaf Litter in Calabrian Sandy Beaches (Southern Italy).

The wracks of Posidonia oceanica leaves on the sandy beaches of Calabrian region could be one of the most important defence against erosion processes. The management of Posidonia oceanica leaf litter in Italy has been realized through the mechanical removal and the transport in dumping areas of the beach-cast material. This solution, apparently simple and fast, produces a net loss of sediments from the sandy beaches and, therefore, a deficit in the sedimentary budget of coastline leading the coastal system to possible shore erosions. Instead, it could be better to keep these vegetable deposits on the place so to warrant a positive sedimentary budget and the tourist value of the regional beaches improving coastal tourism in the seaside resorts with bathing vocation.

Bone fracture detection using active contour model with prior shape

In this research, an image segmentation method based on active contouring model was studied, which incorporates the prior shape into the active contour evolving process as the global constraint. The active contour model is implemented based on the level set method. The prior shape regulates the behavior of the active contour and keeps it from leaking out of the weak edges. The goal of this research is to determine the displacement and alignment between two fractured pieces of a bone which is encased in the cast material by segmenting them out and calculating their axes difference. The noise introduced by the cast material makes this task difficult. Morphological operations of dilation and erosion are deployed in this research as the noise reduction and edge detection tool. Experiment results are obtained successfully by applying this method upon the X-ray images of patients' fractured arm.