Assessment of melt cleanliness of secondary 5000 aluminum alloy via non-metallic inclusions characterization

Abstract

The extensive energy consumption of primary aluminum production stimulates increasing need of producing primary-quality alloys with secondary sources, during which process amount of non-metallic inclusions (NMIs) in the alloy must be strictly controlled. In the present study funded by AMAP Open Innovation Research Cluster, NMIs generated during remelting a 5000 Al-Mg alloy was investigated to offer benchmarking characters of NMIs with respect to type, morphology, size, composition, and concentration. Under different remelting conditions NMIs formed in the melt ahead of solidification were concentrated using Porous Disc Filtration Apparatus (PoDFA) and characterized microstructurally and quantitatively. Investigated conditions included heating cycle, organic contaminations, and refractory materials. Results suggested oxide films and cuboid particles as typical oxides with, respectively, different compositions. The amount of formed oxides declined with the increase of heating rate. With respect to aluminum carbide (Al4C3), organic contaminations were confirmed to lead to an increased amount of its formation. The carbon-containing refractory material contributed more significantly than organic contaminations on the formation of Al4C3 at melt temperatures over 760 & DEG;C. Formulas were derived based on trial results to enable translation of NMIs PoDFA value [mm(2)/kg] into their mass fraction [ppm] in the melt.