Thixoforging of wrought aluminum thin plates with microchannels

A direct die-filling thixoforging method is designed to fabricate aluminum thin plates with a pattern of microchannels in a single forming operation. Extruded AA2024 and AA7075 wrought aluminum billets are used. A recrystallization and partial remelting process is used to prepare the semisolid slurries required for the forming process. Under a thixoforging pressure of 70 MPa, AA7075 thin plates are successfully thixoforged in a temperature range of 883 K to 893 K (610 °C to 620 °C), corresponding to liquid fractions of ∼30 to 50 pct in the semisolid slurry. AA2024 thin plate requires a thixoforging temperature range of 888 K to 898 K (615 °C to 625 °C), corresponding to the liquid fractions of ∼45 to 60 pct. Final microstructures of the thin plates comprise primary α-Al equiaxed globular grains in a matrix of a solidified liquid phase. With increasing thixoforging temperature, the yield strength values continuously decrease. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) values of the thin plates initially decrease with increasing thixoforging temperature from 883 K to 888 K (610 °C to 615 °C) and from 888 K to 893 K (615 °C to 620 °C) for the AA7075 and AA2024 thin plates, respectively. The UTS values stabilize and slightly enhance when the thixoforging temperatures are further increased to 893 K and 898 K (620 °C and 625 °C) for the AA7075 and AA2024 thin plates, respectively. Very brittle behavior (elongation value of ∼1 pct) is observed for the AA7075 thin plates thixoforged at 883 K and 888 K (610 °C and 615 °C). The elongation value increases to 3 pct with increasing the thixoforging temperature to 893 K (620 °C). In contrast, larger elongation values (between 4 and 6 pct) are achieved for the AA2024 thin plates. Increasing the thixoforging pressures from 70 to 100 MPa and then to 150 MPa improves the tensile properties of the thin plates. The tensile properties of the thixoforged thin plates are linked to their microstructural characteristics and processing conditions and are discussed here in detail. © 2014 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International