Performance Comparison of Al–Ti Master Alloys with Different Microstructures in Grain Refinement of Commercial Purity Aluminum
Three types of Al–5Ti master alloys were synthesized by a method of thermal explosion reaction in pure molten aluminum. Performance comparison of Al–5Ti master alloy in grain refinement of commercial purity Al with different additions (0.6%, 1.0%, 1.6%, 2.0%, and 3.0%) and holding time (10, 30, 60 and 120 min) were investigated. The results show that Al–5Ti master alloy with blocky TiAl3 particles clearly has better refining efficiency than the master alloy with mixed TiAl3 particles and the master alloy with needle-like TiAl3 particles. The structures of master alloys, differing by sizes, morphologies and quantities of TiAl3 crystals, were found to affect the pattern of the grain refining properties with the holding time. The grain refinement effect was revealed to reduce markedly for master alloys with needle–like TiAl3 crystals and to show the further significant improvement at a longer holding time for the master alloy containing both larger needle–like and blocky TiAl3 particles. For the master alloy with finer blocky particles, the grain refining effect did not obviously decrease during the whole studied range of the holding time.
Modifying ability of titanium-based pelleted master alloys
The problem of enhancing the quality of pressed titanium master alloys is discussed to increase the rate and degree of dissolution of their components and to ensure the formation of a fine-grained structure in aluminum alloys. A technology of producing a pelleted titanium master alloy for effective correction of the chemical composition of an aluminum alloy in casting is developed and tested. Incoming inspection of the component composition and the flux distribution in the volume of pressed pellets of various manufacturers is performed. The rate of dissolution of pressed powder master alloys in the aluminum melt is studied, and their modifying ability is estimated after studying the microstructures of cast blanks. Molasses is used as a binder in a pelleted master alloy. As a result, we achieved a uniform flux distribution over the pellet volume and the formation of uniform pores after annealing as compared pelleted master alloys of other manufacturers. The fabricated alloying briquettes have higher strength characteristics and their dissolution rate in the aluminum melt is higher than those of analogs by 15–20%.
On the thermodynamics and kinetics of carbides in the aluminium-rich corner of the Al-Ti-C phase diagram
Aluminium composites have a great potential because of their high strength-to-weight ratio. Carbides will in the future be powerful reinforcements. To be able to manufacture these it is of importan ...