Manufacturing of Steel-reinforced Aluminum Products by Combining Hot Extrusion and Closed-Die Forging

摘要

Aluminum extrudates reinforced with steel elements represent an innovative material concept for lightweight structures. Investigations on the process chain of extrusion and subsequent die forging to produce steel-reinforced aluminum parts were carried out. For the investigation the aluminum alloys AA6060 and AA6082 were used as workpiece material. Regarding the extrusion step the position of reinforcement elements with different shapes and their adhesion to the matrix in discontinuously-reinforced, semi-finished aluminum profiles was in focus. Sometimes defects were formed near the reinforcement elements and the nature of such defects was characterized. For the investigations on the forging step extruded profiles reinforced with steel wires were used. Finite element analyses were carried out in order to predict the position of the wires in the forged parts depending on their initial position in the extrusions. Furthermore, the flow behavior of the wires inside the forging part was investigated.