ABSTRACT
The present work aims to contribute to the development of semisolid technology by analyzing the Al2Si2.5Cu and Al4Si2.5Cu alloys produced by severe plastic deformation - ECAP method (equal channel angular pressing) in order to understand the microstructural behavior of these materials. The alloys submitted to reheating treatment in condition of 60% solid fraction at treatment times of 210 s. Microstructural characterization by optical microscopy through analysis of primary globule size, grain size, circularity shape factor and rheocast quality index (RQI). The semisolid alloys produced by ECAP were compared with the traditional processing techniques, namely electromagnetic stirring and grain ultra-refining technique, the Al2Si2.5Cu alloy there was no reduction in size of primary globules and grains, but the Al4Si2.5Cu alloy there was a total reduction of 53 μm for the primary globules size and approximately 50 μm for the grains size, favors characteristic the thixoforming process.
Keywords
Semisolid material; thixoforming; ECAP process; aluminum alloys
