Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
MyJurnal

Abstract

The effect of solid solution treatment on semisolid microstructure of Zn-22Al with developed dendrites was investigated. Zn-22Al is a zinc-based alloy with aluminium as its main alloying element. Producing Zn-22Al product by semisolid metal processing (SSM) offers significant advantages, such as reduction of macrosegregations, porosity and low forming efforts. Meanwhile, thermal and microstructure analyses of Zn-22Al alloy were studied using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and Olympus optical microscope. Solidus and liquidus of the alloy can be determined by DSC analysis. In addition, changes to the microstructures in response to solid solution treatments were also analyzed. The major effort of all the semi-solid technologies is the generation of small and spherical morphologies. Prior to the generation of spherical morphologies, the fine grains should be first produced. The as-cast samples were isothermally held at 315°C, ranging from 0.5 to 5 hours before they were partially re-melted at semisolid temperature of 438°C to produce solid globular grains structure in liquid matrix. The results indicated that a non-dendritic semisolid microstructure could not be obtained if the traditionally cast Zn-22Al alloy with developed dendrites was directly subjected to partial remelting. After solid solution treatment at 315°C, the black interdendritic eutectics were dissolved and gradually transformed into ß structure when the treatment time was increased. The microstructure of the solid solution treated sample changed into a small globular structure with the best shape factor of 0.9 and this corresponded to 40±16µm when the sample was treated for 3 hours, followed by directly partial remelting into its semi solid zone.