Combining Aluminum Heat Treat with Hot Isostatic Pressing: A Comparison of Structure, Properties, and Processing Routes for a Cast Al-Si-Mg Alloy

摘要

Bodycote researchers have successfully demonstrated that a T6 heat treatment can be integrated with Densal~®, a proprietary, aluminum specific, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process. In this combined operation, at least a portion of the solution heat treatment is conducted at elevated pressure. During development, two issues, adiabatic cooling during depressurization and a possible variation in the kinetics of homogenization resulting from conducting the solution heat treat at elevated pressure were perceived as factors which could alter the heat treat response from that seen in conventional processing. This paper reviews the results of experiments performed to Al-Si-Mg (A356.0) castings subjected to both combined and conventional processing routes. Results indicate that the combined HIP and heat treat process is an efficient means of achieving a microstructure characteristic of a conventionally T6 processed material while eliminating porosity within the casting. Further, the fatigue life of an A356.0 casting processed using the combined cycle can be improved by more than an order of magnitude over the as-cast and T6 treated component.