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High quality extrudates from aluminum chips by new billet compaction and
deformation routes
Wojciech Z. Misiolek a, Matthias Haase b, Nooman Ben Khalifa b, A. Erman Tekkaya (1)b,*,
Matthias Kleiner (1)b
a
Institute for Metal Forming, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA
b
Institut fur Umformtechnik und Leichtbau (IUL), Technische Universitat Dortmund, Germany
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: The effects of different billet preparation techniques as well as selection of various deformation routes and
Extrusion
their inuence on the nal mechanical properties in chip extrusion was studied. The AA6060 chips were
Chip
compacted into billets using various techniques and then extruded through the at-face, porthole and
Die design
ECAP dies to create different deformation routes. The microstructures and the mechanical properties of
the chip extruded proles were compared to cast billets extruded through the at-face die under the same
conditions. The proposed technology shows very promising results in terms of energy savings and
production of the high quality engineered aluminum proles.
2012 CIRPElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
0007-8506/$ see front matter 2012 CIRPElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2012.03.113
240 W.Z. Misiolek et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 61 (2012) 239242
Fig. 4. Delaminated chip-based prole extruded with R = 8.6 using at-face die at
450 8C and magnication revealing chip-by-chip delamination of multi-layer
Fig. 1. The generic ow diagram showing steps in direct recycling of aluminum compacted billets.
chips as it is done in the current work.
Fig. 5. The metal ow and compression test specimens for the extrusion dies and the corresponding maximum extrusion forces: (a) at-face die (R = 8.6), (b) porthole die
(R = 8.6), (c) ECAP die (R = 8.6), (d) ECAP die (R = 34).
proposed to examine extrusion through more complex dies in 3.1. Evaluation of the tensile properties
order to create deformation routes resulting in higher imposed
strain and higher pressure on the chips. By using a modied True stress and true strain values at necking for the chip-based
porthole die it was possible to produce chip-based proles with the extrudates manufactured with the porthole and ECAP dies as well
low extrusion ratio. Haase et al. [10] proposed the use of an Equal as for a reference cast material extruded through the at-face die
Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) die in order to improve the are shown in Fig. 6. The chip-based proles extruded through the
mechanical properties of chip-based extrudates manufactured at-face die with R = 8.6 were delaminated and therefore not
with low extrusion ratios. To investigate the inuence of the die evaluated in the tensile test.
design on the nal microstructure and mechanical properties of The tensile tests were performed at room temperature at initial
extrudates three types of extrusion dies with R = 8.6 were included strain rate of 2.5 10 3 s 1 using specimens fabricated parallel to
in the performed research. The at-face die, the modied porthole the extrusion direction. The presented results are an average of at
die, which design was adopted from the application of embedding least three tensile tests. For the porthole die, the true stress value at
high strength reinforcements in extrusion proles [11], as well as necking is 14% lower and the true strain value at necking is 18%
the ECAP die were investigated. The use of the ECAP die led to the higher compared to the reference cast material extruded through
highest strength and ductility of chip-based extrudates for the the at-face die. The ECAP material has comparable strength but
three dies under the considered conditions. about 80% higher ductility compared to the reference specimen.
As the extrusion ratio and the ram speed are among major This additional ductility can be very benecial in case of further
extrusion parameters affecting the microstructure and mechanical mechanical processing and fabrication of the extruded proles in
properties of extrusion proles, the inuence of these parameters terms of their increased formability. An increase in extrusion ratio
on the quality of the chip-based extrudates was investigated for or ram speed for the ECAP die led to a slight decrease in strength
the ECAP die in the present study. The extrusion ratio was changed and ductility, which can be related to the increasing prole exit
from R = 8.6 to R = 34 and the ram speed was increased from temperature leading to softening of the extrudate.
v = 1 mm/s to v = 6 mm/s. Single-layer billets with an initial
density of 78% were used for the experiments. Cast billets extruded 3.2. Microstructure evaluation
through the at-face die with R = 8.6 were used as a reference
material. The experiments were conducted with billet and The microstructure of the extruded proles was characterized
container temperatures of 550 8C and 450 8C, respectively. using light optical microscopy under polarized light. The images
The shape of the deformation zone for the studied extrusion were taken from the extrusion direction transverse direction
dies is presented in Fig. 5. The at-face die (Fig. 5a) is commonly plane and are showing about 60% of the prole width to allow
used in industrial practice to produce aluminum solid-sections, inclusion of the weld line for the porthole die.
the porthole die (Fig. 5b) is typically used to produce complex The specimens were prepared according to metallographic
hollow proles and semi hollow proles while the ECAP die technique and then electrolytically etched using Barkers reagent.
(Fig. 5c) is an experimental tool used mainly to generate ne The representative images for all investigated cases are presented
microstructure. In our studies we used a modied porthole die, in in Fig. 7.
which the billet material ows into the geometrically dened The microstructures differ between the cast and chip based
portholes and it is divided there into material strings, which are billets and between proles extruded through different extrusion
welded into a nal solid prole within the welding chamber
around the shortened mandrel. This rather unconventional
application of the porthole die is utilized in order to increase
the consolidation pressure on the machining chips and thus
increase the welding quality. In the ECAP die, the material is rst
extruded into its nal geometry and then undergoes shearing in
the ECAP turns without any further change in cross section.
Backpressure created by the ECAP turns and additional material
shearing is used to increase pressure on the chips and to rene the
microstructure. The maximum extrusion forces, shown in Fig. 5,
could be used as an indication of total pressure applied to the
chips. Compression test specimens of the chip-based extrudates
shown in Fig. 5 indicate anisotropic material behaviour depending
on die design. For instance, the compression test specimen in
Fig. 5b did not keep its round shape and became rectangular.
Additional experiments have to be conducted to analyze the
anisotropy in chip extrusion. The bonding quality of the chips
differs between compression load and tensile load as compression Fig. 6. Tensile test results for AA6060 chip-based proles extruded from single-
test specimens fabricated with at-face and porthole dies layer billets at 550 8C with different dies as well as cast reference material extruded
delaminated under compression load. through the at-face die.
242 W.Z. Misiolek et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 61 (2012) 239242
Acknowledgments