Microstructural Characteristics of Al-Ti-B Inoculation Wires and Their Addition to the AlSi7Mg0.3 Alloy

Anna Knaislová; Štefan Michna; Iryna Hren; Tomáš Vlach; Alena Michalcová; Pavel Novák; Dana Stančeková

doi:10.3390/ma15217626

Microstructural Characteristics of Al-Ti-B Inoculation Wires and Their Addition to the AlSi7Mg0.3 Alloy

Materials (Basel). 2022 Oct 30;15(21):7626. doi: 10.3390/ma15217626.

Authors

Anna Knaislová¹, Štefan Michna¹, Iryna Hren¹, Tomáš Vlach¹, Alena Michalcová², Pavel Novák², Dana Stančeková³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústi nad Labem, Pasteurova 3334/7, 400 01 Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic.
² Department of Metals and Corrosion Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic.
³ Department of Machining and Production Technologies, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zilina, 010 26 Zilina, Slovakia.

Abstract

Commercially supplied inoculation wires have a guaranteed chemical composition but not the size and distribution of individual phases, which are very important for nucleation. Therefore, two commercial alloys used for the inoculation of Al-Si alloys (AlTi3B1 and AlTi5B1) are investigated in this paper. The emphasis is placed on their structural analysis and the size and distribution of individual intermetallic phases. Furthermore, the grain refinement effect will be tested by adding these alloys to the AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy and testing the optimal amount of added inoculation wires. The results showed that the size and distribution of the individual phases in AlTi3B1 and AlTi5B1 meet the requirements for the successful inoculation of aluminum alloys, the intermetallic phases based on the TiAl₃ phase are fine enough, and there is no agglomeration that would reduce the number of nuclei. This assumption was confirmed by adding these inoculants to the AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy, and it was found that the most ideal amount of inoculants added is 0.01 wt % when the structure was refined by approximately 32%.

Keywords: Al-Ti-B; AlSi7Mg0.3; grain size; inoculation; intermetallics.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the OP VVV Project Development of new nano and micro coatings on the surface of selected metallic materials—NANOTECH ITI II., Reg. No CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_069/0010045.