Relationship Between Aluminum Liquid Metal Quality and Defects

Aluminum alloys are commonly used in various industries today. In order to produce defect-free high-quality alloys with sustainable processes, defects must be reduced, and liquid metal quality must be improved. There are various methods that can be used for the measurement of liquid metal quality. Some of which are density index, bifilm index, K-Mold index, PoDFA, Prefil, fluidity test, and thermal analysis. The relationship and validation between these methods are still not clear. In this study, the relationship between aluminum liquid metal quality and defects is analyzed. Three different conditions were utilized. These conditions are (1) before a controlled degassing, (2) after the controlled degassing and (3) after the liquid metal is transferred to the holding furnace. According to the results, it was observed that the reduction of bifilms index did not reduce other inclusions and did not always favorably affect other measurement methods. It was also observed that the reduction of bifilm index did not improve the porosity level. Moreover, it was found that elongation values are related to the largest defect diameters. Bifilm index are not the only factor affecting the elongation and the density index directly affects the defect distribution. K-Mold index has an impact as it shows macro-inclusions. However, bifilm index, density index, fluidity index and K-Mold index are not as sufficient as numerical calculation of defect size by computed tomography (CT). The main factor directly affecting the elongation and tensile strength was found to be the inclusion size and diameter in the CT result. Examination of the fracture surfaces revealed that oxide contents are present, and the oxygen orientations and aluminum orientations are compatible. This harmony is thought to be related to the orientation of the bifilms in the structure.