Aluminum Alloy Ingot Casting, Molten Aluminum Refining

Aluminum Alloy Ingot Casting

In the smelting process and casting process of producing an aluminum alloy ingot from an aluminum base material, the molten aluminum is heated to 700°C or higher.

Aluminum or aluminum alloy ingots are produced by melting aluminum-based metals into molten aluminum. Keep the obtained molten aluminum, remove hydrogen from the molten aluminum, remove the inclusions from the molten aluminum by filtration, pour the molten aluminum into a water-cooled mold, and solidify the molten aluminum into a predetermined shape.

Since aluminum is an active metal, molten aluminum will react with air to form oxides. In particular, in an aluminum alloy melt containing magnesium, which is more active than aluminum, a large amount of oxides such as MgO and MgAl2O4 are generated and aggregated to form dross. Since scum is a very hard rock-like material, it takes a lot of time and manpower to remove the scum. In addition, if the dross is partially collapsed and mixed into the aluminum ingot, it will cause surface defects and cracks in the final product made from the aluminum ingot (such as aluminum plates such as cans and coils).

In order to prevent surface defects and cracks of the final product and ensure the intended performance of the final product, multiple oxide removal processes are carried out between the melting step and the casting step. These processes include the furnace refining process, the online degassing and filtering process. In particular, because the filtration process can even remove very fine oxides of about 10 μm, the quality of the aluminum alloy can be guaranteed, that is, the quality of the final product can be guaranteed.

Degas Molten Aluminum

The molten aluminum subjected to this treatment is then supplied to a casting step to produce an ingot.

The aluminum alloy ingot is produced by the semi-continuous casting method. The molten aluminum is poured into the water-cooled mold, and the molten aluminum in contact with the water-cooled mold is cooled and solidified to form a solidified shell. Then, when the solidified shell and the molten aluminum in the solidified shell are removed from the lower part of the water-cooled mold When it is drawn out, the cooling water is sprayed directly into the lower part of the solidified shell to cool and solidify the molten aluminum shell in the solidified shell.