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Effect of melting and casting conditions on aluminium metal quality

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 Journal of Materials Processing Technology 182 (2007) 405–410

Effect of casting conditions on aluminium metal quality

Derya Dispinar a,∗ , John Campbell b
a Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
b Department of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Received 6 February 2006; received in revised form 6 June 2006; accepted 23 August 2006

Abstract
A study in a secondary alloy ingot producing plant was targeted to investigate the metal quality change in the holding furnace during secondary
remelting of aluminum alloy LM24 (Al–8Si–3Cu–Fe). The investigation was an attempt to understand the effect of: (i) the use of diffusers (porous
plugs integrated into the body of the furnace) and (ii) casting techniques involving different degrees of turbulence.
Casting density and bifilm index were found to be useful parameters to assess metal quality. It was found that the metal quality was increased
significantly, and was maintained high throughout the casting operation when: (i) diffusers were used and (ii) turbulence was reduced to a minimum.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Secondary remelting; Aluminium; Metal quality; Bifilm index

1. Introduction
The cost of recycling of aluminium compared to the cost of
primary aluminium is highly attractive as a result of major energy
savings [1,2]. Recycling also has benefits for the environment
and for the conservation of natural resources. Today recycled
aluminium accounts for one-third of aluminium consumption
world-wide [1].
The ultimate goal of the recycling process is to produce
clean aluminum to an accurate chemical specification while
minimising metal losses [3–6]. For this purpose, in addition to
alloying, fluxing and degassing treatments are carried out on the
metal in the liquid state in melting furnaces. The melt is then
transferred to a holding furnace. Finally, the melt is cast into
convenient-sized ingots (pigs) that serves as melt stock for the
shaped castings industry. These ingots, formulated according to
recognised national or international specifications, go into the
manufacture of aluminium cast components. The specifications
do not, however, cover the amount of oxides or gas that the
ingots may contain. These constituents are suspected of being
of central importance to the quality of the final cast products.
In an earlier study [7], the use of different lances and ceramic
diffusers in an induction furnace during fluxing and degassing
was investigated. In addition, different gas flow rates were also
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: deryad@istanbul.edu.tr (D. Dispinar).
examined. It was found that when high gas flow rates were used,
violent surface turbulence was observed on the surface of the
melt that introduced bifilms [8]. When low flow rates were used,
then the cleaning process was found to be less efficient. Thus, the
control of the remelting process is not straightforward. In addi-
tion, there were still some concerns about the introduction of
bifilms during transfer of the melt from melting furnace to hold-
ing furnace, mainly due to the heavy turbulence that occurred as
a result of the high fall of the liquid.
It is well known that in controlling the concentration of inclu-
sions in aluminium melts, the settling of the melt has been found
to be beneficial to metal cleanliness [9]. Therefore, in this study,
the aim was targeted to investigate the metal quality change in
the holding furnace as a function of time during a pour. In par-
ticular, an attempt was made to understand the effect of diffusers
and their importance on the metal quality. In addition, the melt
was sampled at various points along the production line, from
the tapping of the holding furnace until the mould filling station.
2. Experimental
The process begins with the melting of a charge of selected scrap in a 2500 kg
electric furnace (Fig. 1) to produce a melt at 750 ◦ C. Following fluxing and
degassing operations, molten metal is transferred to the holding furnace. Two
ceramic diffusers sited in the bottom of the holding furnace purge nitrogen gas
through the melt for a minimum of 20 min. During the tests, different numbers
of diffusers were run; 0, 1 and 2. The schematic layout of the holding furnace
and position of diffusers is given in Fig. 2.

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2006.08.021
406 D. Dispinar, J. Campbell / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 182 (2007) 405–410

Fig. 1. A schematic representation of aluminium ingot production.

Fig. 2. The schematic drawing of the holding furnace and the position of diffusers (all units are in mm).

In the second part of this same study, three changes were made in the casting
area. These are summarised in Fig. 3. The first change was the lowering of the
height of the launder so that the fall of the liquid metal into the ingot mould
would be minimised (Fig. 3a (1)). The second change was made to the casting
device that was intended to deliver the melt into the ingot mould at the lowest
possible point. The internal geometry of this device (unfortunately not able to
be revealed here for commercial reasons) was clearly not altogether satisfac-
tory, involving some degree of turbulent fall. Therefore, the design was altered
slightly and the rate of production of castings was slowed down. These actions
eliminated the worst aspects of the turbulent flow in the device such that the
melt was filled from the bottom of the ingot mould with much reduced distur-
bance (Fig. 3a (2)). The third change was made in the tapping procedure of the
holding furnace (Fig. 3b (3)). When not controlled carefully, the liquid metal
tended to jet out from the tap-hole with the result that the melt was violently
and turbulently propelled along the launder, clearly creating new bifilms and
dross.
The study was performed with alloy LM24 (Al–8Si–3Cu). The composition
of the alloy is given in Table 1. Three ingots were taken from each casting trial:
one from the start (when operations in the holding furnace are complete, and
the furnace is tapped to start the production run), one from middle (when half
of the melt is cast) and one from the end (when the holding furnace is empty) of
the casting process. These ingots were then separately remelted in an induction
furnace at 750 ◦ C and reduced pressure test (RPT) samples were taken from the
melt. (The taking of ingot samples was convenient, allowing the reduced pressure
test to be carried out later at a remote location. Furthermore, this approach was
not found to affect the RPT result to any detectable extent.)

Table 1
Chemical analysis of the 2.5 t melt from start to end
LM24 Cu Mg Si Fe Mn Ni Zn Pb Sn Ti Al

Start 3.43 0.06 8.17 0.87 0.17 0.05 2.42 0.12 0.11 0.06 remaining
End 3.36 0.06 8.18 0.87 0.16 0.05 2.42 0.12 0.11 0.06 remaining
 D. Dispinar, J. Campbell / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 182 (2007) 405–410
Fig. 3. Schematic illustration of changes made at the casting trials (a): (1) the launder was lowered to be as close to the casting mould possible, (2) the casting and
filling speed were decreased. (b) (3) More care was taken to avoid the severe turbulence on tapping.
RPT simply consists of solidification of a 100 g of sample under a reduced
pressure (at 100 mbar) [10,11]. RPT samples (50 mm × 35 mm × 15 mm dimen-
sions) were cast into sand moulds bonded with 1.2% resin. Archimedes Principle
was used to determine the density of the samples. The samples were then sec-
tioned and polished for image analysis and bifilm indices of each sample were
measured. Bifilm index is the sum of the maximum length of pores on the sec-
tioned surface of the RPT samples given in millimetres as an indication of total
oxide length. The methodology and evaluation of bifilm index was given in detail
in References [10,11].
3. Results
The density of the RPT samples as a function of the number
of diffusers is given in Fig. 4. When no diffuser was used, the
densities of the reduced pressure test samples fell from 2620 to
2454 kg/m3 as the casting process progressed (Fig. 4a). Once the
diffusers were active, the density stayed high between 2700 and
2550 kg/m3 and the results were less scattered (Fig. 4b and c).
This is more clearly illustrated in Fig. 4d when averages of the
all results are resented in the same graph. The sectioned surface
of the RPT samples can be seen in Fig. 5a.
The bifilm index results of the same samples are given in
Fig. 6. At the start of the casting, bifilm index (the total length
of defects seen on the polished surface of the RPT sample)
lies between 100 and 150 mm. When no diffusers were oper-
ated the bifilm index rose toward 250 mm as the end of casting
was approached, whereas when diffusers were operational bifilm
index fell to around 100 mm. It is interesting to note that there is
no clear difference between the results when using one diffuser
or two (Fig. 6d).
The second study of the action of the diffusers was carried
out after the changes in the casting area were made. The exper-
imental conditions are summarised schematically in Fig. 3.
The results demonstrate a clear increase in the quality of the
castings when these changes were made. The density increases
in the reduced pressure test samples are illustrated in Fig. 7. In
these figures, the term “non-quiescent” indicates the set of results
from the original design, and the term “quiescent” indicates the
407
new results after the changes have been made as described in
Section 2. When no diffusers were used (Fig. 7a), the increase
in the density was approximately +100 kg/m3 for each section
of the casting; from 2620 to 2704 kg/m3 at the start, 2538 to
2673 kg/m3 at the mid, 2454 to 2617 kg/m3 at the end. The aver-
age increase in the density when diffusers were applied (Fig. 7b
and c) was about half of this value, approximately +50 kg/m3 .
The change in the bifilm index results from the improved
filling conditions are illustrated in Fig. 8. The average bifilm
length values for non-quiescent conditions (which is the orig-
inal fast and turbulent casting) were 188 mm without diffusers
and 100 mm with diffusers. In quiescent conditions, these rather
high results fell to 39 mm without, and 35 mm with diffusers
(Fig. 8). These significant improvements can also be seen from
the sectioned surface of the RPT samples in Fig. 5a and b.
4. Discussion
In an earlier investigation of the quality of the melt in the
holding furnace during secondary remelting process [7], RPT
sample collection was carried out after 30 and 60 min during
which an increase in the density of RPT samples and a decrease
in the hydrogen content were observed [7]. The positive effect
of holding time was possibly due to the settling of oxides [9].
However, when comparing the RPT results from start to the
end the casting process, it was found that the results were not
consistent. The results of the density change of RPT samples
collected from the holding furnace when different numbers of
diffusers were run are shown in Fig. 4.
As seen from Fig. 4, when diffusers were not used (Fig. 4a),
the density of the RPT samples decreased from start to the end of
the casting. This appears to suggest an increased concentration
of inclusions in the lower levels of the melt. It is important to note
that the chemical composition of the melt remained unchanged
during this period (Table 1). However, once the diffusers were
used (Fig. 4b and c), the density results remained practically
unchanged from the start to the end. As was expected, the
408 D. Dispinar, J. Campbell / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 182 (2007) 405–410

Fig. 4. Density change of RPT samples: (a) no diffusers were run; (b) one diffuser was on; (c) two diffusers were on; (d) average values of density change of RPT
samples.

inclusion concentrations were significantly lowered and were,
perhaps, uniformly distributed throughout the melt and through
the casting process.
The bifilm index of these samples are in good agreement
with the density results: it increased (Fig. 6a) from start to end
and once the diffusers were active, the bifilm index decreased
dramatically (Fig. 6b and c). For zero, one and two diffusers,
the average bifilm index values were 188, 110 and 102 mm,
respectively.
In a second phase of these studies, turbulence during the trans-
fer of the melt was reduced at two locations: (i) at the outlet of the
holding furnace where a stopper was introduced to control jet-
ting, thereby transferring the melt more quiescently; and (ii) the
fall of the liquid from the launder into the moulds was reduced
to a minimum.
After these changes the tests were repeated, with impres-
sive results. There was a clear increase in the quality of the
castings. The density of the RPT samples was increased dra-

Fig. 5. Sectioned surface of RPT samples from the trials: (a) non-quiescent castings conditions and (b) quiescent conditions.
 D. Dispinar, J. Campbell / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 182 (2007) 405–410 409

Fig. 6. Bifilm index comparing different number of diffusers: (a) no diffusers were run; (b) one diffuser was on; (c) two diffusers were on; (d) averages of Bifilm
index comparing different number of diffusers.

matically (Fig. 7). The change in the bifilm index was also
remarkable (Fig. 8). The average bifilm length values for the
original non-quiescent conditions were 188 mm without dif-
fusers and 100 mm with diffusers. These rather high results fell
in the improved quiescent conditions to 39 mm without, and
35 mm with diffusers. The clear separation of the results is note-
worthy: in non-quiescent conditions the average bifilm length
was always above 70 mm, whereas for quiescent conditions all
results were below 60 mm.
It is interesting to note that when the casting was carried
out quiescently (achieved simply by implementing simultane-
ously all the three changes investigated in this study), the average
bifilm index values of quiescent conditions was below 50 mm
even when no diffusers were used (Fig. 8). Thus, the effect of
the diffusers was of somewhat less importance than the control
of turbulence, confirming the importance of the control of tur-
bulence during the handling and transfer of molten aluminium
alloys [8]. One might speculate that given a careful design of

Fig. 7. The comparison of the average density values of RPT samples for different techniques: (a) no diffusers were run and (b) one diffuser was on (c) two diffusers
were on.
410 D. Dispinar, J. Campbell / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 182 (2007) 405–410
Fig. 8. The comparison of the average bifilm index values of RPT samples for different techniques: (a) no diffusers were run (b) one diffuser were on (c) two diffusers
were on.
plant, a density closer to theoretical value and zero bifilm length
might be achievable.
5. Conclusions
1. When no diffusers were used in the holding furnace there
was a deterioration in the quality of melt from the beginning
to the end of the casting.
2. Metal quality increased significantly when one diffuser was
used; however, there was marginal additional advantage at
the limits of detectability when using two diffusers.
3. The more quiescently the casting was controlled, the higher
the quality of the products. Good control includes: (i) careful
minimisation of turbulence at tapping; (ii) minimised fall of
the liquid; and (iii) filling conditions to reduce turbulence in
the mould.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the finan-
cial support of Norton Aluminum, and for their assistance in the
use of facilities in the foundry. The diffusers used in the holding
furnace were provided by Capital Refractories Ltd.
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