AN INTEGRATED HEAT TREATMENT MODEL FOR ALUMINUM CASTINGS

摘要

An integrated system of software, databases, and design rules to enable quantitative prediction and optimization of the heat treatment of aluminum castings to increase quality, increase productivity, reduce heat treatment cycle times and reduce energy consumption is currently being developed. It has been demonstrated, empirically, that the solutionizing time for a cast aluminum alloy can be reduced from 12 to 2 hours with no loss of quality or properties. This magnitude of heat treatment cycle time reduction will result in increased productivity and/or reduced energy consumption of greater than 50%. Validated databases for multicomponent alloys and predictive models will enable comparable results to be achieved for a wide range of alloys and applications.