COMPARISON OF MICROSTRUCTURE AND TENSILE PROPERTY OF SILAFONT-36 AND MERCALOY 367 IN A REAR CROSS MEMBER PROTOTYPE CASTING USING HPDC PROCESS

摘要

An automotive structural casting was manufactured through high-pressure die casting process using two Al-Si alloys Silafont 36 and Mercaloy 367. The objective was to compare the two alloys using the dependant parameters such as, filling and solidification, microstructure and uniaxial tensile properties of casting at various critical locations. The analysis includes simulations of mould filling and solidification using Flow3D software. The two Al-Si based alloys lend themselves to structural castings because of their low Fe content; resulting in an increase in the component ductility. The drawback of reducing the Fe content in these alloys were the high susceptibility to die tool soldering of Al which was alleviated by increasing levels of Mn in Silafont-36 and Sr in Mercaloy 367. This report presents the process details, characterization and properties of these two alloy components.