Die Casting

Redesigning Aluminium Foundry Alloys for Material Cost Reduction
SARGAM METALS P.LTD
Sargam Metals Pvt. Ltd.
A Compilation of the Papers presented at the Workshop organised by Sargam Metals Pvt. Ltd on the 21st of November 2001 at Chennai.
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY

All rights reserved. No reproduction in full or in part without the explicit consent of M/s Sargam Metals Pvt. Ltd., 2, Ramavaram Road, Manapakkam, Chennai 600089, India. Tel.: +91-44-249-1796; Fax: +91-44-249-1651; email: sargam_metals@vsnl.com
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Contents
1 2
Foreword Aluminium Foundry Alloys Position in the Aluminium Chain
Why Redesign? The Impact of Alloy Specifications on Cost
12
Role of alloying elements and impurities
23
A Comparison of major international specifications for Aluminium Foundry Alloys
29
The Process of Redesigning a suggested approach
43
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Foreword
Though Aluminium foundry alloys have been made in India for more than five decades and are widely used today, especially in the automotive industry, the level of awareness among the users of the alloys about alloy specifications is very low. The effect alloying and impurity element specifications have, not only on the properties of the alloy, but more importantly, on the cost of the alloy, is not clearly known, understood and appreciated. Till the opening up of the economy in the early nineties, Aluminium foundry alloys were essentially made in India only from primary metal, which was an anomaly in itself. Because of this historical mind set Indian users, even today, are not fully aware of the role of recycling and the fact that the world over, Aluminium foundry alloys are the biggest consumers of recycled material. This quite often leads users to specify unnecessarily close impurity tolerances even for castings that do not warrant such restrictions. This adversely affects the cost of the alloy. Secondly, improvements in foundry technology, machining capabilities, process capabilities and in product application environments are rarely reflected through corresponding changes in alloy specifications. Again, the main reason for this is the lack of awareness. To counter this, as a first step, SARGAM METALS organised a workshop on 21st November 2001 at Chennai entitled REDESIGNING ALUMINIUM FOUNDRY ALLOYS FOR MATERIAL COST REDUCTION. The purpose was to educate the user on Aluminium foundry alloys, its position in the recycling chain, impact of alloy specifications on alloy costs and also to provide a comparison of current major international Alloy specifications. The ultimate objective was to encourage users of Aluminium castings to examine their alloy specifications to see if their current specifications of alloying elements and impurity limits can be changed to enable higher user of Aluminium secondary material without affecting the functional requirements of the casting. The positive response to the workshop has prompted SARGAM to compile and bring out the papers presented in the workshop in the form of this book. Mr. A.V.Kannan, General Manager Sales at SARGAM and Mr. V.S.Rajan, ManagerQuality and R&D at SARGAM put together a lot of the material presented here. SARGAM also gratefully acknowledges the encouragement and support given by its esteemed customers to the workshop and to this compilation and hopes that this compilation will benefit them.
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Aluminium Foundry Alloys Position in the Aluminium Chain
Introduction In order to fully understand and appreciate the concepts explained in subsequent papers, it is essential to have a clear background picture of the Aluminium family, the concept of recycling and where Aluminium foundry alloys fit in, in the Aluminium chain. This paper attempts to give you just such a background information. The History of Aluminium Aluminium is the most abundant metal in the earths crust and is the third most abundant element after Oxygen and Silicon. Unfortunately, it is an extremely reactive element because of which it is not found in the free state. The most common forms in which Aluminium occurs and from which it is commercially extracted are Hydrated Aluminium Oxide more commonly known as Bauxite and Cryolite, which is a mixture of Sodium Fluoride and Aluminium Fluoride.
It is because of its high reactivity, and it not being available in the free state that, though the existence of Aluminium was established by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1808, it was first commercially produced only towards the last decade of the 19th century. In 1886, two unknown young scientists, Charles Hall of the US and Paul Heroult of France working separately developed in parallel the electrolytic refining process. In this process, direct current electricity is passed from a consumable carbon anode into molten alumina or aluminium oxide splitting the oxide into molten metal and carbon dioxide. Though, continuous progress has been made in reducing the amount of electricity used, there is no viable alternative to this electrolytic process for producing Aluminium. Aluminium is a relatively young metal in commercial production for only about a 120 years compared to Copper, which has been used for several thousand years. In spite of this, today Aluminium production is greater than all other non-ferrous metals and is in fact greater than the combined production of Copper, Lead and Tin. Aluminiums usage has steadily increased, especially after World War II when it was considered a strategic metal, and today it finds wide applications in the automotive industry, to make beverage cans, packaging foil, sheets, conductor cables, building profiles etc.
Aluminium in Automobiles The advantageous properties of Aluminium, which I dont intend listing here, are the key reasons for the sustained increase in the use of Aluminium. The statue of Eros in Londons Piccadilly Circus [Picture 1] was cast from Aluminium in 1893 and is still as good as new. It may be of interest to know that Aluminium has been used in automobiles for over a hundred years.
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Picture 1
Statue of Eros at Picadilly Circus Cast from Aluminium in 1893
It is reported that Aluminium crankcases were first used in automobiles as far back as 1897. An Aluminium cylinder block was first made in 1903 and an Aluminium rear axle housing in 1904. The Ford Model T used Aluminium in its transmission. Aluminium pistons were tried in 1913 on racing cars. You must reflect on this for a moment to fully appreciate the kind of impact Aluminium must have had to generate this kind of application development. Today there are more than a hundred types of auto parts made of Aluminium and the list is growing. An average automobile in the U.S now has more than a 100 Kg of Aluminium in it representing 8 to 10% of the weight of the car. Ford Motor Company is reportedly working on an Aluminium Intensive Vehicle the P2000 that will weight only 900 Kg 60% of other cars of its size and will use some 350 Kg of Aluminium parts.
The History of Aluminium Recycling It is well known that the manufacture of Aluminium from bauxite is a highly energy intensive process. In fact, roughly 50% of the cost of pure Aluminium is energy cost. On the one hand, therefore, you have increasing uses cropping up for Aluminium and on the other you have the high cost of getting pure Aluminium. The natural solution for this problem is recycling.
Again, it will be of interest to know that the Aluminium recycling industry has its origins in 1904 - a mere 16 years after commercial primary Aluminium production began! In the early years, reclamation of Aluminium was relatively insignificant because the supply of scrap was extremely limited. However, many scrap metal collectors and processors realised even then that Aluminium had economic values that made it very attractive for recycling.
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Almost a hundred years later, those same desirable properties - low energy for conversion, good product performance and favourable economics make Aluminium recycling even more attractive. If you pause to think for a moment, you will appreciate that recycling of Aluminium provides a continuous source of Aluminium, helping the Aluminium industry maintain its growth. This growth of the Aluminium industry and Aluminium applications in turn increases the availability of aluminium scrap thus supporting the secondary Aluminium smelting industry. Bear in mind further, that recycling conserves significant energy as well. Thus the recycling industry is and will continue to be a significant supply factor in the Aluminium chain. The Aluminium recycling industry got a big boost immediately after World War II. The war resulted in a huge generation of aluminium scrap, especially the aero scrap. New alloys to profitably use the scrap were developed. Alloys, especially for die-casting, produced entirely from secondary aluminium came into being. The prices of these alloys were low, thus spurring the development of new die cast products. Other uses for secondary Aluminium were developed. The number of Aluminium items produced from recycled metal grew rapidly. Aluminiums growth in importance never looked back. The point to be noted here is that the recycling of Aluminium is almost a parallel development. It is not a 21st century green movement fad. On the contrary, recycling of Aluminium because of its favourable economic impact is an essential part of the Aluminium supply chain and is undoubtedly a critical component of the Aluminium industry and it should be understood and appreciated as such.
The Aluminium Recycling Chain Recycling of Aluminium and the development of foundry alloys are linked and related activities. In order to appreciate this, you must have a clear picture of the Aluminium recycling chain.
The first link in the chain is the production of Primary Aluminium pigs and ingots from bauxite. As you are aware, this is a highly energy intensive process and requires the setting up of capital intensive smelters, of which there are not too many. In India for instance, we have five primary producers HINDALCO, NALCO, BALCO, INDAL and MALCO. The pure Aluminium ingots produced by the primary producers go mainly into the production of Aluminium wrought products. The wrought products include sheets, plates, rods, bars, extrusions, wires and foil. Wrought mills producing these products can be integrated down stream facilities established by primary producers or separate stand-alone plants. In India, HINDALCO has good down stream capability integrated with its Renukoot facility while units like Jindal are separate stand-alone extrusion plants. A relatively smaller portion of the pure ingots goes into the production of Aluminium cast products. The first source of scrap generation is the manufacturing scrap arising during the production of these wrought products whether at the primary producer or at the stand-alone
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wrought mill. This is generally known as new scrap. It essentially consists of solids, clippings and cuttings, sawings, residues such as dross, skimming and spillage and floor rejections. This new scrap, except usually for the sawings and dross, is generally consumed by the wrought product producer himself who will add it back to the melt. Similarly, during the production of cast products, new manufacturing scrap arises such as runners and risers, rejected castings, borings and turnings from machining operations, residues such as dross, skimming and floor rejections. Again except for the borings and dross the rest are usually consumed by the foundry itself. Whatever new scraps from the wrought mills or casting shops that are not consumed inhouse are sold to dealers. We will track what happens to this in just a moment. The wrought and cast products made move onto other factories where they become part of end products. For example, extrusions may end up getting assembled as window or doorframes; sheets may become part of a roof, or an aircraft body panel. A cast product may end up in a motor cycle or car. Similarly, beverage cans, cooking utensils, electrical transmission lines, household Aluminium foils are all products, which would have started out from a wrought mill or a cast shop. This second stage manufacturing generally takes place in several stages in different locations. For example a pressure die cast housing made in China can become a CD drive in a Seagate plant in Taiwan and then part of a PC assembled in Malaysia. Again, while these second stage manufacturing and assembly takes place more new scrap can arise. This time essentially as trimmings and clippings in the case of wrought products, turnings and borings and of course rejections. The second stage manufacturer generally, cannot consume this scrap and this scrap too finds its way to the dealer market. Finally, the finished products that get made all have a finite life. Of course the life varies from weeks or months for beverage cans and most packaging products to a few years for electronic and white goods to many years for automobiles or building products. At the end of life we have the post-consumption or old scrap. This old scrap invariably ends up at the scrap dealer. Now, depending on the product, differing amounts of retrieval efforts may be required for separating out the aluminium content in the product. If you take a scrapped automobile, for instance, a lot of effort is required as there are so many different types of material making up a car, each of it having a different recycling value. On the other hand a used beverage can or a packaging foil, is generally, fully Aluminium as it is, and requires no special separation efforts. We now have several loose ends in the Aluminium chain. From the first stage manufacturing, we have some amounts of new scrap especially turnings, borings and dross that require off-site processing. From subsequent stages of manufacturing and assembly, you can have more new scrap including line rejections and finally you have the post-consumer old scrap from which the Aluminium content has been extracted. Where do these go?
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The largest users of such dealer-collected scrap are secondary Aluminium producers. The secondary aluminium producer converts such scrap into specification ingots. He would try to use the lowest grade scrap to meet the required final specification, adding higher grades and even pure Aluminium, as may be required, only to sweeten the melt. The secondary Aluminium producer essentially caters to the Aluminium cast product manufacturer. The reason for this is not very difficult to see. Wrought Aluminium alloys generally have close impurity limits and much smaller alloying additions. A large portion of both old and new scraps therefore, cannot be used to make wrought alloys. The cast alloys however have high percentages of alloying elements and tolerate a far higher level of impurity elements thus permitting the use of a wider range of scraps in its manufacture. We can now close the loop by moving all the scrap to the secondary aluminium producers. The entire recycling chain is depicted figuratively in FIGURE 1. These producers convert the scrap into graded casting alloys that go to the foundries or casting shops. FIGURE - 1
THE ALUMINIUM CHAIN Primary Aluminium Producer Pure Ingots Manufacture of wrought products by wrought mills Secondary Aluminium Producer Alloy Ingots Manufacture of cast products in foundries
New Scrap
New Scrap
Mill Products
Castings
Consumers of mill products and castings Manufacturers of end products
End Products Useful Life End of Life Scrap
New Scrap
Scrap Dealer
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Actually today the situation is slightly different. While till about 15 years ago, the casting alloy manufacturer was the main buyer of Aluminium scraps, today he has competition from the wrought mill as well. The value of recycling is so high that scrap dealers now separate scraps into purer grades and sell these to the wrought product manufacturers. Leading wrought product manufacturers the world over now have secondary plants recycling selected scrap back to specification billets. In India too, Indal has a secondary melting facility in Taloja which processes scrap into extrusion and sheet grade billets. However, typically, secondary cast or foundry alloy producers have a greater flexibility in using different types of scrap while secondary wrought producers only prefer higher grades of scrap. In fact many wrought alloy billet plants are specially designed to process one type of scrap only. For example there are specialised plants that convert used beverage can scrap into specification billets. In a typical can recycling facility for instance, the steps involved would be: debaling, separation into can, tab and end stocks as each is of a different specification, delaquering, melting, casting and rolling. A point to bear in mind is that effective scrap recycling is a specialised job and a process involving skill. The type of scrap, its nature and typical specifications will all be known to the skilled recycler. He would also know exactly how to use the scrap and what preprocessing to do to improve yields. And of course today, the additional requirement is to do all this in an environmentally acceptable manner. Many people outside are not aware of this and comparing the price of raw scrap with ingots think its a simple business. Unfortunately, it is not!
Recycling Facts and Figures The fact that recycling is an integral part of the Aluminium supply chain, especially overseas, can be understood from the following interesting and eye-opening facts on recycling.
The recycling of beverage cans, because of its short life cycle, is tightly controlled in many countries and represents one of the success stories in recycling. Consider this: the allAluminium beverage can was first introduced in 1963. Recycling of such cans began in an organised manner in 1968 in California. In 1972, Aluminium cans had a 20% market share of all beverage cans in the US. Today, thanks to the recycling program and the resulting cost savings, steel cans are totally out in the US and Aluminium beverage cans have a 100% hold on the market. Last year 100.8 billion cans were manufactured in the US out of which some 62.6 billion cans were recycled representing 62.1% of the total production. Recycling rates from building and transport applications are equally impressive. In 1998, 11.6 million tons of old and new scrap was recycled fulfilling 40% of the global demand for Aluminium. Of this some 38% came from the transport sector and some 32% from the building sector.
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In the US the transportation industry is the largest user segment for Aluminium accounting for some 30.9% of the total Aluminium consumed. Significantly, almost 90% of automotive aluminium is recycled metal. Today the Aluminium industry is working with the automobile manufacturers to enable easier dismantling of Aluminium components from cars in order to improve their sorting and recovery. It is no surprise therefore, that, though Aluminium represents 10% of the weight of the typical car Aluminium scrap accounts for 30 to 50% of the total cars scrap value. In Europe in 1996, it was decided that all the individual country standards for Aluminium alloys would be replaced by a common Euro standard. One of the reasons for this is to reduce the number of different specifications in operation in Europe which will eventually make recycling easier and more effective as the number of types of scrap compositions will also reduce. In summary it is to be clearly understood that recycling is a vitally important part of the Aluminium industry and is not some clandestine operation being carried out by a shady producer! Though, Excise and Customs products nomenclature unfortunately classifies scrap as waste and scrap, Aluminium scrap is definitely not a waste but is actually a vital raw-material especially for the foundry alloy industry. World over foundry alloys are designed with an eye on scrap availability. Indias protected economy did not recognise this all these years but now it is time to change. To change how we view alloy specifications, to change how we handle our scrap generation and to change how we view Aluminium scrap. We hope that the following papers will be a step in this direction.
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Paper 2
Why Redesign? The Impact of Alloy Specification on Cost

Introduction The concept of recycling and the production of Aluminium foundry alloys using secondary material has been covered in the previous paper. With this as a background we will now try and see how the alloy specifications affect the type of secondary material that can be used and the impact of this on the alloy cost. We will simultaneously examine the possibility of redesigning the chemical composition limits to derive cost advantage without affecting product quality.
Before proceeding look at pictures 1,2 3 and 4. These are critical castings like pistons, transmission housings and cylinder heads. You would expect that they would have been cast using special alloys with low impurity limits. Actually, they are all made from 100% secondary alloys of Grades A380 and A384, alloy compositions similar to the familiar LM24. The fact that these critical castings like pistons, transmission housings and cylinder heads are produced using secondary alloys with pretty high impurity limits, is an eyeopener to those who still think that such critical castings are to be produced only from foundry alloys manufactured from primary Aluminium and virgin alloying elements!
Transmission Housing-Type I
Cu-2.33%, Si-9.09%, Mg-0.05%, Mn 0.22%, Fe-1.01%, Zn-1.12% Alloy Type - A380.0

Picture 1
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Transmission Housing - Type II
Cu-2.48%, Si-11.37%, Mg-0.10%, Mn-0.21%, Fe-0.81%, Zn-2.4% Alloy Type-383.1

Picture 2
ENGINE CYLINDER
Cu-2.50%, Si-6.13%, Mg-0.27%, Fe-0.42%, Zn-0.22% - Alloy Type AC2B

Picture 3
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PISTON
Cu-3.19%, Si-8.71%, Mg-0.05%,Mn-0.18%, Fe-0.90%, Zn.1.85% Alloy Type - A-380.1

Picture 4
The History of Alloy production in India Let us look at the history of Aluminium alloy production in India. Till about 1990, alloys in our country, contrary to what was happening in the rest of the world, were produced practically only from primary Aluminium and alloying elements. Even the so-called secondary alloys like ADC-12 were converted from pure Alumimium ingots to which the required amounts of Copper and Silicon were added. In fact at Sargam there have been many occasions when we have used an Iron-Aluminium master alloy to get the iron limit up in the PDC alloys! In those days the alloy buyers did not approve using scrap to make alloys. Secondly, local generation of Aluminium scrap was extremely small and import of scrap was not possible. Thus there was practically no need to worry about impurity levels.
The year 1991 witnessed a new era of liberalization, opening out free accessibility to imported aluminium scrap in various forms. Simultaneously it became easily possible to import sophisticated analytical instruments like Emission spectrometers facilitating melts to be analysed within minutes. This period also witnessed multi-national companies coming in through collaborations or direct establishment of their manufacturing units in our country and Indian companies actively chasing global markets resulting in alloy specifications taking on a wider international flavour.
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The beneficial effect, of course, of the liberalisation is that there are now a variety of models to choose from, be it a small pager or a luxury car. The flip side is that manufacturing units are under intense pressure to keep costs down. Cost reduction is thus practically an on-going process, almost a necessity for survival. The first impact of this liberalised scenario as far as Aluminium alloys are concerned was the acceptance that Aluminium alloys can be made from secondary material. This is in fact the way alloys have been made overseas for many decades. Immediately, there has been an effect on cost. Take for example, Aluminium Alloy ADC-12 ingots a familiar specification. This alloy contains 1.5 to 3.5% Cu, 9.6 to 12.0% Si with liberal impurity limits. If this alloy is made from pure Aluminium to which 3% of Copper and 11% of Silicon is added, it will probably cost the user Rs.95 per Kg. Today, it is accepted that this alloy can be comfortably made using Aluminium secondary material. In fact, today no ADC12 user will pay more than Rs.78 to Rs.80 for this alloy! This clearly shows that the price difference of an alloy made from secondary is on the lower side by Rs.15 to Rs.16/- per kg, definitely 17% cheaper than the alloy cost, if produced from virgin inputs. Of course, there are still certain alloys, which necessarily need to be made from virgin inputs for instance the alloy A356, which is used to make automotive wheels. But then these are the so-called premium alloys, which are also priced very high. Thus, in the last ten years or so, Indian alloy users have got used to the fact that it is beneficial and, in fact, a must, that foundry alloys should be made from Aluminium secondary material. Scrap is no longer a dirty word. It is now accepted that alloys like ADC12 and LM24 are entirely secondary based alloys. Overseas, as a matter of fact, practically all alloys, with the exception of premium alloys, are made from secondary material. In India, however, due to the lack of availability of purer grades of scrap in large quantities at reasonable prices, alloys like LM4, AC4B etc. are to some extent secondary based while alloys like LM6, LM25 etc. use a much larger quantity of primary material. While all this is well known, we will now try and see how you can squeeze some more cost benefits in all your alloys by taking an even closer look at alloy specifications.
Some Common Scrap Types Before we get into this let us first take a quick look at some of the important types of Aluminium secondary material that are generally available: Used Aluminium components usually automotive components. These will typically have a composition of around 2 to 3% Copper, 7 to 8% Silicon, 0.5 % or so of Magnesium, 1 to 1.5% of Iron and anywhere from 0.8 to 3% Zinc. Such components will generally offer a yield of 90% or so and will cost around 75 to 80% of pure Aluminium. Typical cost today may be around Rs.62 to Rs.65 per Kg.
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Aluminium sheet scraps: These will have a typical composition of around 0.8 to 1.0% of Magnesium and 0.8 to 1.0% of Manganese. These will also result in a yield of around 90% and will cost just a little more than component scraps. Typical costs may be around Rs.65 to Rs.70 per Kg. Aluminium extrusions and profiles: These will typically have 0.5 to 0.7 % of Magnesium and Manganese. However the material will be clean resulting in yields of 95% yields. The cost will be around 90% of pure Aluminium. Typical costs may be around Rs.75 to Rs.80 per kg. Clean Aluminium scrap: This includes lithographic sheets and Aluminium cable scrap. These are 99.5% pure and the yield will also be 95% +. However the price will also be 90 to 95% or so of pure Aluminium. Typical costs will be Rs.80 to Rs.85 per Kg. Aluminium Turnings & Borings: These are basically machine shops arisings and is often mixed with iron and other impurities like zinc, brass and copper. If carefully segregated and smelted could yield 70 to 75%. Its cost could be 50% to 60% of pure Aluminium.
A Typical ADC12 Melt With this as the background let us look at a typical melt for ADC12 using secondary material. The melt-size, let us assume, is 1500 Kg.
Let us assume that we start the melt using 1000 kg of old and used automobile die cast component scrap. (This is the normal practice.) We generally take this 1st input composition to be totally unknown. Thus, after melting the charge of 1000 Kg, we have in the furnace clean liquid metal approximately of 920.0 kg (after melt losses). A sample is drawn from this molten metal and referred to the laboratory for analysis by Emission Spectrometer. The analytical result of the base metal, which we will refer to as input I, is given below: I. Cu 2.01, Si 7.22, Mn 0.50, Mg 0.40, Ni 0.15, Fe 1.0%, Zn 0.9%
We require totally 1500 kg of ADC-12 alloy out of which we now have 920 kg of base metal inside the furnace, which works out to 61.3% of the total required. We thus need to make up another 580 to 600 Kg of metal. The important question is what is the final composition required. The standard ADC12 as per JIS is: Cu 1.5 to 3.5%, Si 9.6 12.0%, Mn 0.5% max, Mg 0.3% max, Fe 1.3% max, & Zn 1% max Contrary to what you may be thinking, what we are concerned about at this point of time is not the alloying element percentages but the impurity percentages! Addition of alloying elements like Copper and Silicon can be made up at any point of time by adding pure Copper and pure Silicon to the extent necessary. However, if there are any impurities over
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the permissible limits, it must be understood that they cannot be eliminated but only diluted. Let us examine two cases of final specification requirements: Case Case I Case II Cu 2 to 3% 2 to 3% Si 11 to 12% 11 to 12% Mn 0.3% max 0.4% max Mg 0.3% max 0.3% max Fe 0.8% max 0.9% max Zn 0.8% max 0.9% max
In the first case the customer requires Manganese and Magnesium to both be under 0.3% each, with Fe and Zinc each to be under 0.8%. The existing metal representing 61.3% of the total melt will contribute to the final composition as follows: I: Cu 1.23%, Si 4.43%, Mn 0.30%, Mg 0.25%, Fe 0.61%, Zn 0.55%. While we are OK with the Fe and Zinc limits, we have, unfortunately, already hit the limit for Manganese and almost hit the limit for Magnesium. Thus any material we can add now should not have Manganese and should have very little Magnesium. It is most likely that we will need to use litho sheets or cables. The melt make-up will look something like this: Item I Cu Si Litho TOTAL % of melt after melt loss 61.3 1.5 7.0 30.2 100.0 Cu 1.23 1.50 Si 4.43 6.90 2.73 11.33 0.3 0.25 Mn 0.3 Mg 0.25 Fe 0.61 0.10 0.09 0.80 Zinc 0.55
0.55
The cost of this melt will be at least Rs.75 per kg (excluding production costs). The customer in Case II has a slightly more relaxed specification. This requires Manganese at 0.4%, Magnesium at 0.3% and Iron and Zinc at 0.9% each. For meeting this specification, we are a little better placed. We now have the choice of adding a little more of Type I casting scrap till we hit the Magnesium and/ or Manganese cap or we can add some sheet scrap or extrusion scrap and make up the rest with litho or wire scrap.
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The melt make-up will look something like this: Item I I (more) Cu Silicon Litho TOTAL % of melt after melt loss 61.3 20.0 1.1 5.5 12.1 100.0 Cu 1.23 0.4 1.1 Si 4.43 1.45 5.4 2.73 11.28 0.39 0.33 Mn 0.3 0.09 Mg 0.25 0.08 Fe 0.61 0.20 0.06 0.01 0.88 Zinc 0.55 0.18
0.73
The cost of this melt will be at least Rs.2 or 3 lower than the previous melt at around Rs.72 per Kg. This is because we have been able to use more of the lower priced Aluminium casting scrap type of material and less of the expensive lithographic sheet material.
Impurity Limits affect Cost We were able to achieve this reduction by just a 0.1% relaxation in a few impurity limits. Whether the alloy is LM4 or ADC12 or AC4B, the concept is similar. Even a 0.1% difference in impurity limits can translate into a Rs.2 or 3, or sometimes even greater, difference in cost per Kg. If you use 30 MT of the alloy per month we are talking of a saving of Rs.10 lakhs or more per year just by working on the permissible impurity limits!
Let us be clear about two things here: First, we are not suggesting that all impurity limits be opened up indiscriminately. On the contrary, It should be a carefully studied and controlled act and will depend on several factors. In fact in subsequent papers we will outline some suggestions on how to go about this. Second, we are not making this statement of asking for a re-look at impurity limits without basis. We are stating this, fully conscious of its implications. In the next paper we will be highlighting the effects of various alloying elements and impurities in Aluminium and will also present various international standards including the new EN standards. This will clearly show you what is possible, what is not and what has already been done in different parts of the world. This will be a good guideline to you while considering the possibility of re-designing or re-defining your specifications, with a view to saving of cost.
A Closer Look at Impurity Limits Now, let us ask ourselves the question what would happen if impurity limits are relaxed slightly. Let us look at three specific impurities - Iron, Zinc and Magnesium.
Iron, is actually quite OK up to a certain limit. What is the limit is the question. Earlier, the limitation in PDC alloys for iron was mainly due to the fact that when aluminium alloys were melted in a cast Iron crucible, Aluminium would pick up iron from the melting pot. The combination of iron, Manganese and Zinc would form sludge resulting in the accumulation of unusable Aluminium. However, today, almost all die-casters use graphite or silicon carbide crucibles. Hence relaxing Fe limits marginally for PDC alloys need not
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be a cause for concern. If you take a look at the revised American specification, as well as the revised ENAC specifications for an alloy like LM-4, Fe is relaxed up to 1% even for gravity die-casting. Hence a little relaxation of even 0.1% in Fe would help us to use at least 5% more of lower cost secondary material. Of course, for castings that require heat treatment to achieve better mechanical properties, the relaxation should be based on careful study. What about Magnesium? The presence of Magnesium to a level of 0.8 to 1.0% will not affect the casting characteristics of Aluminium. On the contrary, Magnesium with Silicon and Copper will enhance the hardness of the alloy due to age hardening. As you will see in the next paper, all the BS 1490 specifications have been completely revised in the year 1998 as the unified BSEN 1706-98. All alloys have been grouped based on the alloying elements present in each grade and each alloy type is covered by at least 2, 3 or more specifications with different impurity levels. In most of the alloys, presence of Mg has been relaxed, obviously, keeping in mind that presence of Mg does not in any way affect the casting characteristics of the alloy. There is another reason for this relaxation, which we will see in a moment. Except in the case of alloys where natural age hardening will affect subsequent operations or where a specific range of Magnesium is required to achieve specific properties after heat treatment, minor relaxation in Magnesium content will not generally cause any casting problem. It should also be borne in mind that Magnesium levels will keep going down with every melt and with every addition of foundry returns. Let us take the case of Zinc. Zinc has no significant benefits by being present in Aluminium alloy ingots except for marginally adding to the weight of the component produced. This particular element is generally permitted in pressure die-casting alloys from 1 to 3% and in recent gravity die-casting specifications like A319 up to 1% or more. Compare this with earlier specifications of, say, LM-4, which restricted Zinc to 0.5% maximum. In some critical alloys like LM-9, LM-6 & LM-25 the presence of Zn is still controlled at 0.1% and even in these alloys, if Zn % is relaxed by 0.1%, usage of secondary can be increased comfortably by 10 to 20% and cost of the alloy can be comfortably brought down. These changes can be attempted in all alloys. Even alloys like LM6 or LM25. In these alloys, for instance, the difference between the alloy cost with 0.1% max. Copper and 0.2% max. Copper will be at least Rs.3 to Rs.4.
A Strong Case for Redesigning This is not something radical that we are proposing. In fact the BS1490 specifications, which was and still is, considered sacrosanct in the Indian foundry industry, evolved based on the type of scrap available immediately after World War II. In other words, foundry alloy specifications are made up with a clear eye on scrap availability and their specifications. For instance over the last several decades use of Aluminium extrusions and sheets for building and transport applications and thin sheets for beverage cans have increased. This means more extrusion scrap will be generated as buildings are torn down or automobiles scrapped and more beverage-can scrap as cans are recycled. Most of these specifications will have 0.5 to 1.0% Magnesium. This is precisely the reason why in latest
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revisions of many alloy specifications, Magnesium limits (as an impurity element) have been increased. This is to permit the use of the kind of scrap that is now generated by industry. We have customers whose alloys specify stringent Magnesium control, but the components are not heat-treated! So why not relax the Magnesium limits? In fact, while close control is maintained on alloy compositions, what about the composition of the castings that you actually get? Many of you can try this. If you are buying castings or getting them converted it is likely that destructive chemical analysis may not be part of your QC plan. While chemical composition of alloy ingots are carefully checked, components are checked for dimension, casting defects etc. and rarely for composition. Just check a few from your next lot. There may be some surprises with elements out of range. But, if you had not checked the composition, you would have accepted the casting as sound! Please reflect on the fact that while casting technologies have changed, crucibles have changed, fluxes have changed, and application technologies have changed alloy specifications have remained static! Take the case of the automotive piston. Machining technology has changed and finer finishes are possible, lubrication technologies have improved by leaps and bounds and the friction levels in the engine cylinders are much lower but have we tried to see if there is any implications on piston alloy specifications at all! Internationally specifications are reviewed and updated routinely and regularly but unfortunately, here neither is there locally driven change nor is there an effort to keep abreast of changes taking place abroad! Thus, the first thing we have to drop is the mind set that alloy specifications are written in stone and are not to be touched. They can and should be examined every once in a while, just as you would periodically examine quality procedures to see if they require change. Finally let us be absolutely clear that our idea of suggesting to re-design or re-specify the material composition for cost purpose does not mean that all specifications are to be relaxed. The objective should be to workout a practical composition to save the cost of the material without diluting the quality. Efforts should be made to critically examine each and every grade of alloy both as regards to the alloying elements as well as impurity levels and re-specify wherever practically possible to achieve cost control as long as the redesigned or re-specified compositions do not affect the products performances.
Suggestions on Scrap Handling Before closing the paper let us spend a few minutes to discuss a related issue - the value of the scraps you may be generating. After all, we have just highlighted how important scrap is to alloy makers. So it is extremely important that you view your own scrap arising in a new light! You may be interested to learn that you can squeeze money out of this as well by following some simple practices. All of you are aware, day in and day out, Aluminium Foundries, OE & spares manufacturers turn out considerable quantities of Aluminium scrap, the value of which is
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even today under-estimated. Do take a look at this side of your operation and ensure that all the scraps that are generated by a foundry and machine shops are properly segregated, sorted and stored in recommended conditions to realize their value in full. Please do not leave these materials as trash or junk. Mind you, these are all your hidden treasures which will help you to sustain in todays competitive market conditions. Let us look at a few of the common types of scrap generated and Best Practices to handle them. In a foundry, fettling operations will result in an accumulation of runners and risers. These are called foundry returns and are usually reused in the foundry itself. However, best practice requires that these be collected and stored as far as possible alloy wise. This becomes even more important if the ratio of runner/ riser to component is high. With careful segregation, the runners and risers can be comfortably used with original alloy ingots in ratios ranging from 30:70 to even 50:50, depending on the finer requirement of the component. While many foundries do some amount of recycling of the runners and risers, most do not consider spillage and floor sweeping as a recyclable input at all! We have observed that, as a conservative estimate, a fifty-ton-per-month foundry will lose 500 Kg or about 1% as spillage and floor sweeping. These are either swept out or disposed at low rates, while if they are collected carefully and stored properly, their disposal value can increase considerably. The biggest concern for any foundry is the dross generation. This is basically a mixture of metal and metal oxide. For every 1000 kg of Aluminium ingots melted, the average dross generated varies between 30 to 40 kg. Thus, a typical Aluminium casting foundry melting 100 tonnes of alloy ingots or other solid Aluminium material, generates 3 to 4 MT of dross. The two important aspects here are: (a) to minimise the quantity of dross generated per melt, through the use of covering fluxes, temperature control etc. and (b) maximise the recovery of metal from the dross, which as I pointed out is a mixture of metal and metal oxide. Do remember, however, that in spite of your best efforts in sweating out entrapped metal from hot dross using recovering fluxes at the foundry, there will still be recoverable metal going out in the remaining dross. The secondary recovery or off-site recovery can be anything from 15 to even 30 or 40% of the cold dross. It is now a well-accepted fact that a foundrys profits are in the dross generated! Foundries, which are producing or melting quantities exceeding 5 MT per day, can consider installation of a suitable hot dross compression unit. We will be happy to provide you information and suggestions on such useful equipment. Another very important area is the machined turnings and borings generated by the machine shops that may be in-house or external. Turnings are generally generated during turning operations and are generally fairly thick. Borings are relatively fine and arise during boring operations or during finer finishing operations. The handling practice of such machine-shop waste is generally not up to the mark in even large companies. The first
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mantra here is SEGREGATE AND STORE. If you can segregate alloy-wise that would be the best. If not, definitely you must separate Ferrous borings from non-ferrous and within the non-ferrous borings separate Zinc or Copper or Brass from Aluminium. The second mantra is DRAIN OUT COOLANT OIL. As you are aware, coolant oils are basically hydro-carbons and when they get mixed with Aluminium borings (a) they add to the weight of the material and (b) at the time of smelting, these hydro-carbons produce Carbon Monoxide and Carbon-di-oxide gases, which are major pollutants. Equally important such burning of the oil while melting adds to the oxidation and reduces the yield and hence the value of the turnings and borings! Today, thanks to the tightening of pollution norms and the introduction of ISO14000 standards, many companies are trying to remove the oil before disposing the borings thereby, knowingly or unknowingly, increasing the yield! Our strong suggestion would be that you must pay attention to this aspect. Coolant oil can be removed by centrifuging, storing on a slope, pressing into a briquette etc. The third mantra is STORE CAREFULLY. In many companies, dross and machined borings are waste products to be dumped in some remote corner of the factory yard to be hurriedly disposed off every time there are some visitors! Please spend some money in organising a covered storage area that will permit segregated storage. And finally dispose promptly without accumulating for months on end.
Conclusion Alloy specifications should be designed bearing in mind that they are to be made as far as possible from secondary metal. Impurity limits should not be tighter than absolutely necessary to achieve product performance. Controlled relaxation wherever possible will yield significant cost savings. Finally, handle your own scrap arising with care and understand that they are valuable!
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Paper 3 Part 1
ROLE OF ALLOYING ELEMENTS AND IMPURITIES

Introduction In this paper we will look at some of the important alloying and impurity elements which make up most Aluminium foundry alloys. The objective is to understand the role of the alloying elements and impurity limits. Why Alloying? Pure Aluminium has low strength and hardness. Its machinability is also poor. The foundry characteristics of pure Aluminium are also very poor and presents many gating and feeding problems, which is inherent in many pure metals. Pure Aluminium therefore is mainly used in foundries only for a few castings such as rotor castings which are pretty straightforward and where the high ductility and electrical and thermal conductivity are important characteristics required. No other engineering products can be cast out of pure Aluminium. Alloying with other elements improves the mechanical properties as well as foundry characteristics of Aluminium. The effect of alloying in general is to increase the fluidity of the molten metal and increase the strength and hardness of the casting. Machinability is also improved on alloying.
Those characteristics of an alloy, which determines the ease, or difficulty, of producing acceptable castings are called Casting Properties while those properties, which are of interest to the designer or user of castings are the Engineering Properties. Both these sets of properties are improved by alloying in Aluminium alloys. Let us now look at some of the common alloying elements and their role individually.
Copper Copper is an important alloying element in many Aluminium alloy families. Addition of Copper progressively increases the strength and hardness of the alloy until the Copper additions reach approximately 12%. Further addition of copper makes the alloy too brittle for any engineering purpose. Copper greatly improves the machinability of the alloy and also improves the elevated temperature properties.
Under equilibrium conditions about 5.6% copper is soluble in Aluminium at the eutectic temperature of 548C. [See Figure 1] This solubility is reduced to below 0.5% Cu at room temperature. This wide decrease in solid solubility from 5.6% to 0.5% on solidification is the principle reason on which the solution annealing and precipitation hardening heat treatment processes are based. Between 2.8 to 5% of Copper is necessary to give good response to heat treatment by forming CuAl2 compound, which permits precipitation hardening.
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FIGURE I
ALUMINIUM-COPPER EQUILIBRIUM ( PHASE) DIAGRAM -Al RICH END
T E M P E R A T U R E
O
800
LIQUID
700
660
600 500
Cu+ liquid
548
5.65
Al
400
300
AL+ Cu COMPOUND
200 100 AL
4 5 6 WEIGHT % COPPER
10
Cu
Copper imparts high strength and improved machinability when added to Al-Si alloys. (Alloy 3.5% Cu, Si 6.0% is a preferred general-purpose alloy for sand castings while a 3.5% Cu; Si 8.5% is preferred for pressure die castings) Copper as an impurity element has the detrimental effect of reducing corrosion resistance. For optimal corrosion resistance the Copper content should be less than 0.05%. As Copper content increases there is a gradual increase in corrosion attack. Silicon Silicon is the most important alloying addition to Aluminium foundry alloys. The reason for this is very simple. Silicon dramatically improves fluidity and casting characteristics of Aluminium. When Silicon is added to Aluminium the strength and hardness of the alloy improves progressively.
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Another interesting aspect of Silicon additions is its effect in lowering the alloys melting point. Addition of silicon to Aluminium steadily reduces the melting point of the alloy from the 660 C for pure Aluminium to 577C for a Silicon content of 11.6 %. This temperature of 577C is the eutectic temperature for binary Aluminium-Silicon alloys. [See Figure 2] FIGURE 2 ALUMINIUM-SILICON EQUILIBRIUM ( PHASE) DIAGRAM
1500 1400 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700
1430
T E M P E R A T U R E
O
LIQUID
660
600
LIQUID + SILICON
577
500 400 300 200 100 AL
11.60% silicon eutectic AL+SI COMPOUND

10 HYPO EUTEC TIC 20 30 40 50 60 WEIGHT % SILICON 70 80 90 100
Si
HYPER EUTECTIC
The optimum Silicon content for an alloy depends on the casting process adopted. For general slow cooling castings 5 to 7% Silicon is adequate. For faster cooling castings 7 to 9% would be required while for pressure die casting 8 to 12% Silicon is required. Binary Aluminium-Silicon alloys combine the advantages of high corrosion resistance, good weldability and low specific gravity. Fluidity increases and hot-cracking tendency as well as solidification shrinkage decreases steadily till the eutectic point (11-13%). This makes it easier to produce castings free from shrinkage and hot-cracks. This is why Aluminium-Silicon alloys are particularly useful to produce pressure tight castings. Aluminium-Silicon alloys do not machine as well as Aluminium alloys not containing Silicon. In fact when Silicon is present in large percentages, it is advisable to use carbide tools for machining.
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The mechanical properties of Aluminium-Silicon alloys can be further improved by a melttreatment process called MODIFICATION1. Sodium salts or metallic sodium was used to modify the silicon structure for many years, but due to its fading effect and its interaction with phosphorus resulting in reduction of modifying effect it is now being replaced, especially in critical applications, with strontium. Strontium at a level of 0.0080.04% modifies the Aluminium-silicon eutectic system. Higher levels might result in porosity and can also affect the degassing efficiency and the fluidity of the metal. Aluminium-Silicon alloys with more than the eutectic level of Silicon (more than 12% Silicon) are known as hypereutectic alloys. These high silicon alloys have out standing wear resistance, a lower thermal expansion coefficient and very good casting characteristics. These alloys have traditionally received limited attention and use because the presence of the extremely hard primary silicon phase reduces tool life during machining. Also, these alloys require special foundry practice/technique to control the microstructure and casting soundness. Improvements in machine-tool technology and the introduction of polycrystalline diamond cutting tools have done much to alleviate the problems of poor tool life when these alloys are machined. As a matter of fact, but for the poor tool life, the alloys actually result in excellent surface finish and their chip characteristics are also very good. These alloys have excellent fluidity as well. To guarantee the best machinability and mechanical properties these hypereutectic Aluminium-Silicon alloys must be treated to control primary silicon size. This treatment, termed refinement is accomplished by adding phosphorus at a level of 0.015-0.03% in the form of phosphor-copper. Phosphorus from this addition in the form of AlP3 compound nucleates the primary silicon particles during solidification. However, when hypereutectic alloys are high-pressure die-cast such primary Silicon refinement is not needed. This is because the rapid solidification inherent in a pressure die-casting process results in fine structure even when the melt is not treated with phosphorus. Magnesium Magnesium at small percentages is the basis for strength and hardness development in heat-treated Aluminium-Silicon alloys like the familiar LM25 alloy of the erstwhile BS1490 or the A356 wheel alloy. In these alloys during heat treatment involving solution treatment and precipitation hardening Mg2Si precipitates as a hardened phase enhancing physical properties. The usual range of Magnesium for optimal Mg2Si formation is 0.4% to 0.7%. In the Aluminium-Silicon-Copper alloy system, Magnesium addition in combination with Copper affords greater response to heat treatment. A typical example is the C355 alloy - Cu 1-1.5%, Si 4.5-5.5%, Mg 0.45-0.6%. There are also Aluminium-Magnesium alloy systems like A514 or LM5 of the erstwhile BS1490 where Magnesium is a major alloying element. These alloys are characterized by
1
Modification is the process of changing the shape of the silicon particles when they solidify in a matrix of Aluminium from its normal dendritic or tree-like structure to a well-rounded shape.
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excellent corrosion resistance, good machinability and attractive appearance when anodized. Controlled melting and pouring practices are needed to compensate for the greater oxidizing tendency of these alloys when molten. One particular aspect with respect to these Aluminium-Magnesium alloys is the allowable limit of Silicon in the system. Alloys like A511 (Mg 4%, Si 0.5%) and ENAC51400 (Mg 4.5-6.5%, Si 1.5%) permit a small amount of Silicon. The reason is these alloys are generally used for parts in which the major requirement is corrosion resistance or decorative appearance. Hence the addition/presence of silicon will not in any way affect the performance. Manganese Binary Aluminium-Manganese alloys are not used in the foundry. Manganese is normally considered as an impurity in casting compositions and is controlled to low levels in most gravity cast compositions. Manganese forms a complex compound with Aluminium and Iron and alters the shape of the Iron constituent from a plate like structure to a Chinese Script structure. This results in improving the ductility and impact resistance of the alloy. Manganese is an important alloying element in wrought compositions. To permit the use of wrought material in the manufacture of foundry alloys most specifications permit Manganese as an impurity with typical maximum limits ranging from 0.3 to 0.5%. Nickel Introduction of up to 2.5 % Nickel increases the ability of an alloy to resist the effects of exposure to elevated temperatures. It also reduces the coefficient of thermal expansion. Thus Nickel at 1 to 2% levels are often found only in piston alloys and in components which are in high temperature service. Titanium & Boron Titanium is used to refine the grain structure of Aluminium casting alloys with or without the combination of smaller amounts of Boron. Addition of Titanium for grain refinement reduces cracking tendencies in castings. Strontium As mentioned earlier Strontium is used as a permanent modifier for eutectic and some hypoeutectic Aluminium-Silicon alloys. By means of modification the Aluminium-Silicon constituent can be changed from needles and plates to a fine spherical shape with improvements in casting characteristics and mechanical properties. Addition of strontium is typically in the range of 0.01 to 0.03%. After the strontium addition, usually in the form of a master alloy, the melt should be left undisturbed for a short period (say 10-15 minutes) as the degree of modification increases with holding time. Role of impurities Let us now examine the role of a few important impurity elements in Aluminium alloys. Iron Iron is the omnipresent impurity in Aluminium right from the Ore processing to the finished component stage. The degree or permissible level of Iron in Aluminium alloys depends on the casting process employed and also on the application of the product.
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Iron increases the hot-tear resistance which is helpful, but decreases ductility. This is because iron combines with other elements forming insoluble embrittling constituents that act as severe stress raisers. Thus in premium quality alloys like the Aluminium-SiliconMagnesium A356 wheel alloy, where increased ductility is a requirement, Iron is restricted to 0.2% or less. Iron is generally restricted to 0.5 to 0.8% in most sand and gravity casting alloys as another undesirable effect of high Iron content is the coarsening of as cast grain size. However this negative effect on grain size can be countered by Titanium grain refining additions and current specifications even allow up to 1% Iron in gravity casting specifications. In high-pressure die casting, as the Aluminium alloy is injected into the mould under pressure, because of the high affinity Aluminium has for Iron, it tends to attack and dissolve the die steel. This can cause the metal to stick to the die and component ejection becomes a problem. This is known as soldering to the die. This tendency is reduced if the alloy has about 0.8 to 1.0% of Iron already alloyed in it. Thus pressure die casting alloy specifications generally permit 1 to 1.3% Iron. Zinc No significant benefits are obtained by the addition of Zinc to Aluminium. However, Zinc also brings in room temperature aging properties. Hence in these alloys high strengths can be achieved without heat treatment. Thus there is an alloy known as Tenz alloy with 6 to 8% of Zinc along with small amounts of Copper (0.6%) and Magnesium (0.4%). This alloy is useful for making castings with shapes difficult to solution heat treat. However, in practically all other Aluminium alloys Zinc is an impurity element. Most common alloy specifications permit Zinc up to 3 %, as it has no deleterious effects on properties. This limit enables a good amount of die cast scrap to be used in the alloy preparation. Lead, Tin and Bismuth Bismuth and Lead form small, insoluble globules in a casting microstructure. This acts as chip breakers that reduce the length of chips during machining facilitating increased cutting speeds and reduced usage of cutting fluids. Thus both Bismuth and Lead up to 0.5% levels are used in some specifications but mostly these are impurity elements at 0.3%. Tin is also credited with improving machinability of Aluminium casting alloys but its usage is only in alloys where its soft nature imparts bearing properties. In most compositions Tin is an impurity element.
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Paper 3 Part 2
A Comparison of Major International Specifications for Aluminium Foundry Alloys

In this presentation the following six alloy families have been chosen for comparison: 3% Copper, 6% Silicon alloy family 3% Copper, 8 to 12% Silicon alloy family 11% Silicon alloy family 7% Silicon, 0.5% Magnesium alloy family 3 to 5% Magnesium alloy family High silicon alloy family The following standards have been referred for comparison purposes: EN1676:1997 Aluminium and Aluminium alloys Alloyed ingots for Remelting Specifications. EN1706:1998 Aluminium and Aluminium alloys Castings Chemical composition and Mechanical Properties. The Aluminium Association, Registration Record Series, Designations and Chemical Composition Limits for Aluminium Alloys in the Form of Castings and Ingot February 1999 revision. JIS H 5202:1999 Aluminium Alloy Castings JIS H 5302:2000 Aluminium Alloy Die Castings [Note: In 1996, member countries of the European Union, brought out a unified joint standard for Aluminium foundry alloy ingots (the EN1676) and a similar standard for castings (the EN1706) replacing the various individual country standards such as the BS1490 of UK and the DIN1725 of Germany.] For each alloy family a selection of the specifications in each of the standards listed above have been compared. The main purpose of this is to make the user aware of the wide range of specifications that are now available for each alloy family. By studying them carefully the user can convince himself that depending on the application, alloys with different impurity limits can and should be chosen thus permitting optimal use of secondary material with corresponding cost savings. It should further be noted that EN specifications now clearly have two standards one for alloy ingots and the other for castings. The U.S Aluminium Association record also provides separate specifications for alloy ingots and castings. Typically the casting specifications will provide for slightly higher impurity limits taking into account the invariable pick up of impurity limits like Iron during casting. In the case of Magnesium, the casting limits will generally be lower than the ingot limit providing for loss of Magnesium during melting. While a detailed study is left to the reader, the following two examples will be of interest:
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Case 1: LM4 was the only 3% Copper, 6% Silicon specification in the erstwhile BS1490. Its specification (BS1490-1988) was: Copper 2 to 4%, Silicon 4 to 6%, Manganese 0.2 to 0.6%, Iron 0.8%, Magnesium 0.2%, and Zinc 0.5%. The revised EN specifications have 5 alloys in this family. While the alloying element range is by and large similar, impurity limits vary. Iron varies from 0.9% in AB45000 to 0.55% in AB45400. Zinc varies from 2% in AB45000 to 0.2% in AB45400. In other words, AB45000 has liberal impurity limits while AB45400 has comparatively narrower limits. The alloy that is meant to be heat treated AB45100 specifies a minimum Magnesium limit while the others do not. AB45200 permits Magnesium up to 0.4% while AB45000 permits Magnesium up to 0.55%. Similar is the case of the specifications in AA and JIS. Both specifications have alloys with close impurity limits and ones with wide impurity limits. In alloys A319.1 and 320.1 for instance, Zinc is permitted up to 3% while AC2B of JIS permits Zinc up to 1%. The maximum Iron limits specified is 0.9% in both the ENAB series (AB45000) and the AA series (B319.1 and 320.1) and 1% in JIS (AC2B). This clearly shows that alloying and impurity limits should be fixed depending on the application and with proper foundry practice producing sound castings with 1% Iron and 3% Zinc is possible. Incidentally, the EN standard mentions that the tonnage of castings produced in each specification decreases down the table. In other words, maximum tonnage (all over Europe) is of AB45000 the most liberal specification - and the least tonnage is of AB45400 the tightest specification. Case 2: JIS ADC12 is the most common pressure die casting specification in India. It specifies a maximum impurity limit of 1% for Zinc. In the latest edition a new specification ADC12Z has been added which is identical to ADC12 in all aspects except it permits Zinc up to 3%. Obviously, this is to permit a greater use of secondary material and a corresponding reduction in cost. The reader is encouraged to study the physical property data wherever given to see which specification changes affect mechanical properties significantly and which do not.
Important Note The specifications that follow are extracts from the relevant international standards and are given for comparison purposes only. It does not purport to be the complete standard. The reader is advised to refer to the original standard for their actual application and use.
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C O M P A R IS O N O F IN T E R N A T IO N A L S T A N D A R D S - A L U M IN IU M C A S T IN G A L L O Y S A L U M IN IU M C A S T IN G A L L O Y S - 3 % C o p p e r , 6 % S ilic o n C H E M IC A L C O M P O S IT IO N O F IN G O T S E n s e r ie s En AB45000 En AB45100 En AB45200 En AB45300 En AB45400 Cu Si Mg 0 .5 5 0 .2 0 -0 .4 5 0 .4 0 0 .4 -0 .6 5 0 .0 5 Mn 0 .2 -0 .6 5 0 .5 5 0 .2 -0 .5 5 0 .2 -0 .5 5 0 .2 -0 .5 5 Fe 0 .9 0 0 .5 0 0 .7 0 0 .5 5 0 .5 5 Ni 0 .4 5 0 .1 0 0 .3 0 Ti Zn 0 .2 0 2 .0 0 0 .2 0 .2 0 0 .1 5 0 .5 5 0 .1 5 Cr Pb Sn Al
3 .0 -5 .0 5 .0 -7 .0 2 .6 -3 .6 4 .5 -6 .0 2 .5 -4 .0 4 .5 -6 .0 1 .0 -1 .5 4 .5 -5 .5 2 .6 -3 .6 4 .5 -6 .0
0 .1 5 0 .3 0 0 .1 0 0 .2 0 0 .1 5 0 .1 0
0 .1 5 R E M 0 .0 5 R E M 0 .1 0 R E M 0 .0 5 R E M 0 .0 5 R E M
0 .2 5 0 .0 5 -0 .2 0 .1 0
0 .2 0 .2 0
A A S E R IE S 3 0 8 .1 3 0 8 .2 3 1 8 .1 A 3 1 9 .1 3 1 9 .1 3 1 9 .2 B 3 1 9 .1 3 2 0 .1 J IS S E R IE S AC2A AC2B
Cu
Si
Mg 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 5 -0 .6 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 5 -0 .5 0 .1 -0 .6 Mg 0 .2 5 0 .5 0
Mn 0 .5 0 .3 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 0 .1 0 .8 0 .8 Mn 0 .5 5 0 .5 0
Fe 0 .8 0 .8 0 .8 0 0 .8 0 0 .8 0 0 .6 0 0 .9 0 0 .9 0 Fe 0 .8 0 1 .0 0
Ni
Ti 0 .2 5 0 .2
Zn 1 .0 0 .5
Cr
Pb
Sn
Al REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM
4 .0 -5 .0 5 .0 -6 .0 4 .0 -5 .0 5 .0 -6 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 5 .5 -6 .5 3 .0 -4 .0 5 .5 -6 .5 3 .0 -4 .0 5 .5 -6 .5 3 .0 -4 .0 5 .5 -6 .5 3 .0 -4 .0 5 .5 -6 .5 2 .0 -4 .0 5 .0 -8 .0 Cu Si
0 .3 5 0 .3 5 0 .3 5 0 .1 0 0 .5 0 0 .3 5 Ni 0 .3 0 0 .3 5 Ti
0 .2 5 0 .9 0 0 .2 5 3 .0 0 0 .2 5 1 .0 0 0 .2 0 .1 0 0 .2 5 1 .0 0 0 .2 5 3 .0 0 Zn 0 .2 0 0 .5 5 0 .2 0 1 .0 0 Cr Pb Sn
Al
3 .0 -4 .5 4 .0 -6 .0 2 .0 -4 .0 5 .0 -7 .0
0 .1 5 0 .1 5 0 .2 0 0 .2 0
0 .0 5 R E M 0 .1 0 R E M
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COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL SPECIFICATIONS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS- 3% COPPER 6% SILICON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION Mn Fe Ni Ti Zn MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Cr Pb Sn Al TEMPER TENSILE CONDITION N/mm2 AS CAST 170 T6 320 T6 230 T6 230 T4 230 ELONG -ATION% 1 1 <1 <1 6 HARDNESS BHN 75 110 90 100 75
EN SERIES ALLOY En Ac 45000 En AC 45100 En AC 45200 En AC 45300 En AC 45400
Cu
Si
Mg
3.0-5.0 2.6-3.6 2.5-4.0 1.0-1.5 2.6-3.6
5.0-7.0 0.55 0.2-0.65 1.00 0.45 0.25 2.00 0.15 0.30 0.15 REM 4.5-6.0 0.15-0.45 0.55 0.60 0.10 0.25 0.20 0.05 0.10 0.05 REM 4.5-6.0 0.40 0.2-0.55 0.80 0.30 0.20 0.55 - 0.20 0.1 REM 4.5-5.5 0.35-0.65 0.55 0.65 0.15 0.05-0.25 0.15 - 0.15 0.05 REM 4.5-6.0 0.05 0.55 0.60 0.10 0.25 0.20 0.05 0.10 0.05 REM CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Zn 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 1.00 3.00 1.00 1 Cr Pb Sn Al REM REM REM REM TEMPER TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS BHN CONDITION N/mm2 -ATION% AS CAST 193 2 70 No Data No Data No Data No Data AS CAST 234 2.5 85 T6 276 3 95 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Zn 0.20 0.20 TEMPER TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS CONDITION N/mm2 -ATION% BHN 0.55 0.15 0.15 0.05 REM AS CAST 180 2 75 T6 270 1 90 1.00 0.20 0.20 0.10 REM AS CAST 150 1 70 T6 240 1 90 Cr Pb Sn Al
AA SERIES 308 A 319.0 319 318
Cu 4.0-5.0 3.0-4.0 3.0-4.0 3.0-4.0
Si
Mg
Mn 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5
Fe 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
Ni 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35
Ti
5.0-6.0 0.1 5.5-6.5 0.1 5.5-6.5 0.1 5.5-6.5 0.1-0.6
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION JIS SERIES AC2A AC2A AC2B AC2B Cu Si Mg 0.25 0.50 Mn 0.55 0.50 Fe Ni Ti
3.0-4.5 4.0-6.0 2.0-4.0 5.0-7.0
0.80 0.30 1.00 0.35
- 32 -

C O M P A R IS O N O F IN T E R N A T IO N A L S T A N D A R D S A L U M IN IU M C A S T IN G A L L O Y S 3 % C O P P E R 8 -1 2 % S IL IC O N C H E M IC A L C O M P O S IT IO N O F IN G O T S Si Mg Mn Fe Ni Ti Zn 8 .0 -1 1 .0 1 0 -1 2 .0 7 .5 -9 .5 6 .5 -8 .0 8 .3 -9 .7 8 .0 -1 1 .0 6 .0 -8 .0 0 .1 5 -0 .5 5 0 .3 0 .1 5 -0 .5 5 0 .3 5 -0 .6 0 0 .3 0 -0 .6 5 0 .1 5 -0 .5 5 0 .3 5 0 .5 5 0 .5 5 0 .1 5 -0 .6 5 0 .2 0 -0 .6 5 0 .1 5 -0 .5 5 0 .5 5 0 .1 5 -0 .6 5 0 .6 0 -1 .1 0 0 .4 5 -1 .0 0 .7 0 0 .7 0 0 .7 0 0 .6 -1 .2 0 .7 0 0 .5 5 0 .2 0 .4 5 0 .2 0 .3 5 0 .2 0 .3 0 0 .2 0 .2 0 0 .1 0 -0 .1 8 0 .5 5 0 .2 0 .3 5 0 .2 1 .2 0 1 .7 0 1 .2 0 0 .6 5 0 .8 0 3 .0 0 1 .0 0
E n s e rie s En AB 46000 EnAB 46100 En AB46200 En AB46300 En AB46400 En AB46500 En AB46600
Cu 2 .0 -4 .0 1 .5 -2 .5 2 .0 -3 .5 3 .0 -4 .0 0 .8 -1 .3 2 .0 -4 .0 1 .5 -2 .5
Cr 0 .1 5 0 .1 5
Pb 0 .3 5 0 .2 5 0 .2 5 0 .1 5 0 .1 0 0 .3 5 0 .2 5
Sn 0 .2 5 0 .2 5 0 .1 5 0 .1 0 0 .1 0 0 .2 5 0 .1 5
Al REM REM REM REM REM REM REM
0 .1 5
AA
S E R IE S 3 2 0 .1 3 3 2 .1 3 3 2 .2 3 3 3 .1 A 3 3 3 .1 A 3 8 0 .1 A 3 8 0 .2 B 3 8 0 .1 C 3 8 0 .1 D 3 8 0 .1 3 8 3 .1 A 3 8 3 .1 3 8 3 .2 3 8 4 .1 3 8 4 .2 A 3 8 4 .1 B 3 8 4 .1 C 3 8 4 .1 3 8 5 .1
Cu 2 .0 -4 .0 2 .0 -4 .0 2 .0 -4 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 3 .0 -4 .0 2 .0 -3 .0 2 .0 -3 .0 2 .0 -3 .0 3 .0 -4 .5 3 .0 -4 .5 3 .0 -4 .5 3 .0 -4 .5 3 .0 -4 .5 2 .0 -4 .0
Si 5 .0 -8 .0 8 .5 -1 0 .5 8 .5 -1 0 .0 8 .0 -1 0 .0 8 .0 -1 0 .0 7 .5 -9 .5 7 .5 -9 .5 7 .5 -9 .5 7 .5 -9 .5 7 .5 -9 .5 9 .5 -1 1 .5 9 .5 -1 1 .5 9 .5 -1 1 .5 1 0 .5 -1 2 .0 1 0 .5 -1 2 .0 1 0 .5 -1 2 .0 1 0 .5 -1 2 .0 1 0 .5 -1 2 .0 1 1 .0 -1 3 .0
Mg 0 .1 -0 .6 0 .6 -1 .5 0 .9 -1 .3 0 .1 0 -0 .5 0 0 .1 0 -0 .5 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 5 -0 .3 0 0 .1 5 -0 .3 0 0 .1 0 .1 5 -0 .3 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 5 -0 .3 0 0 .1 5 -0 .3 0 0 .3
Mn 0 .8 0 .5 0 .1 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 0 .1 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 0 .1 0 .5 0 .1 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5
Fe 0 .9 0 .9 0 .6 0 .8 0 0 .8 0 1 .0 0 0 .6 0 1 .0 0 1 .0 0 1 .0 0 1 .0 0 1 .0 0 0 .6 -1 .0 1 .0 0 0 .6 -1 .0 1 .0 0 1 .0 0 1 .0 0 1 .1 0
Ni 0 .3 5 0 .5 0 .1 0 .5 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .1 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .3 0 0 .3 0 0 .1 0 0 .5 0 0 .1 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0
Ti 0 .2 5 0 .2 5 0 .2 0 .2 5 0 .2 5 -
Zn 3 .0 1 .0 0 .1 1 .0 0 3 .0 0 2 .9 0 0 .1 0 0 .9 0 2 .9 0 0 .9 0 2 .9 0 2 .9 0 0 .1 0 2 .9 0 0 .1 0 0 .9 0 0 .9 0 2 .9 0 2 .9 0
Cr
Pb
Sn
Al
REM REM REM REM REM 0 .3 5 R E M 0 .3 5 0 .3 5 0 .3 5 0 .1 5 0 .1 5 0 .1 0 .3 5 0 .1 0 0 .3 5 0 .3 5 0 .3 5 0 .3 REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM
J IS S E R IE S A D C -1 0 A D C -10 Z A D C -1 1 A D C -1 2 A D C -12 Z
Cu 2 .0 -4 .0 2 .0 -4 .0 2 .5 -4 .0 1 .5 0 -3 .5 0 1 .5 0 -3 .5 0
Si 7 .5 0 -9 .5 0 7 .5 0 -9 .5 0 7 .5 0 -9 .5 0 9 .6 -1 2 .0 9 .6 0 -1 2 .0
Mg 0 .3 0 0 .3 0 0 .3 0 0 .3 0 0 .3 0
Mn 0 .5 0 .5 0 0 .6 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0
Fe 1 .3 0 1 .3 0 1 .3 0 1 .3 1 .3
Ni 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 0 .5 0 -
Ti
Zn 1 .0 0 3 .0 0 1 .2 1 .0 3 .0
Cr -
Pb -
Sn 0 .2 0 0 .2 0 0 .2 0 0 .2 0 0 .2 0
Al REM REM REM REM REM
0 .2 -
- 33 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS - 3% Copper, 8 - 12% Silicon CHEMICAL COMPOSITION Mn Fe Ni Ti MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Zn Cr Pb Sn Al Temper Cond. TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS N/mm2 -ATION% BHN AS CAST 240 1 80 AS CAST 240 1 80 AS CAST 240 1 80 AS CAST 180 1 80 AS CAST 135 1 60 ASCAST 150 1 60
En series
Cu
Si
Mg
En Ac 46000 En AC 46100 En AC 46200 En AC 46300 En AC 46400 En AC 46600
2.0-4.0 1.5-2.5 2.0-3.5 3.0-4.0 0.8-1.3 1.5-2.5
8.0-11.0 10-12.0 7.5-9.5 6.5-8.0 8.3-9.7 6.0-8.0
0.05-0.55 0.55 0.3 0.55 0.05-0.55 0.15-0.65 0.30-0.60 0.2-0.65 0.25-0.65 0.55 0.35 0.15-0.65
1.30 1.10 0.80 0.80 0.8 0.8
0.55 0.25 0.45 0.25 0.35 0.25 0.30 0.25 0.2 0.10-0.2 0.35 0.25
1.20 0.15 0.35 0.25 REM 1.70 0.15 0.25 0.25 REM 1.20 0.05 0.25 0.15 REM 0.65 0.15 0.10 REM 0.8 0.10 0.10 REM 1.0 0.25 0.15 REM
AA SERIES A380.0 A380.0 A383.0 A 384.0
Cu Si Mg Mn 3.0-4.0 7.5-9.5 0.1 0.5 3.0-4.0 7.5-9.5 0.1 0.1 2.0-3.0 9.5-11.5 0.10-0.30 0.5 3.0-4.5 10.50-12.0 0.1 1.3
Fe 1.30 1.30 1.30 1.30
Ni Ti 0.5 0.50 0.30 0.50
Zn Cr 3.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 -
Pb -
Sn 0.35 0.35 0.15 0.35
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Temper TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS N/mm2 -ATION% BHN Cond. Al REM ASCAST 331 3 80 REM ASCAST 324 4 75 REM No Data No Data No Data No Data REM ASCAST 324 1 No Data
JIS SERIES ADC-10 ADC-10Z ADC-11 ADC-12 ADC-12Z
Cu 2.0-4.0 2.0-4.0 2.5-4.0 1.50-3.50 1.50-3.50
Si 7.50-9.50 5.0-7.0 7.50-9.50 9.6-12.0 9.60-12.0
Mg 0.30 0.50 0.30 0.30 0.30
Mn 0.5 0.50 0.60 0.50 0.50
Fe 1.30 1.30 1.30 1.3 1.3
Ni 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
Ti -
Zn Cr 1.00 3.00 1.2 1.0 3.0 -
Pb -
Sn 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.20
Al REM REM REM REM REM
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Temper TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS Cond. N/mm2 -ATION% BHN AS CAST 241 1.5 73.6 No Data No Data No Data No Data No Data No Data No Data No Data AS CAST 228 1.4 74.1 No Data No Data No Data No Data
- 34 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS - ALUMINIUM 11% SILICON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF INGOTS En series En AB44000 EnAB 44100 En AB44200 En AB44300 En AB44400 Cu 0.03 0.1 0.03 0.08 0.08 Si 10.0-11.80 10.5-13.5 10.5-13.5 10.5-13.5 8-11.0 Mg 0.45 0.10 0.10 Mn 0.10 0.55 0.35 0.55 0.50 Fe Ni Ti Zn Cr Pb Sn Al
0.15 0.15 0.07 0.55 0.10 0.15 0.15 0.40 0.15 0.10 0.45-0.9 0.15 0.15 0.55 0.05 0.15 0.15
REM 0.10 0.2 REM REM REM 0.05 0.05 REM
AA SERIES 413.2 A 413.1 A 413.2 B 413.1 JIS SERIES AC3A AC4A
Cu 0.1 1.00 0.10 0.10 Cu
Si 11.0-13.0 11.0-13.0 11.0-13.0 11.0-13.0 Si
Mg 0.07 0.10 0.05 0.05 Mg
Mn
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn
Cr
Pb
Sn 0.1 0.15 0.05 Sn
Al REM REM REM REM Al
0.1 0.7-1.1 0.35 1.00 0.05 0.60 0.35 0.40 Mn Fe
0.1 0.50 0.05 0.05 0.25 Ni Ti
0.1 0.40 0.05 0.10 Zn Cr
Pb
0.25 10.0-13.0 0.25 8.0-10.0
0.15 0.35 0.30-0.60 0.30-0.60
0.80 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.15 0.10 0.10 REM 0.55 0.10 0.20 0.25 0.15 0.10 0.05 REM
- 35 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS Al 11.0% SILICON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION MECHANICAL PROPERTIES Temper TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS condition N/mm2 -ATION % BHN AS CAST AS CAST AS CAST AS CAST AS CAST 150 150 240 240 220 6 4 1 1 2 45 50 80 60 55
En series En Ac44000 EnAC 44100 En AC44200 EnAC 44300 EnAC 44400
Cu 0.05 0.15 0.05 0.1 0.1
Si 10.0-11.80 10.5-13.5 10.5-13.5 10.5-13.5 8-11.0
Mg 0.45 0.10
Mn 0.10 0.55 0.35 0.55 0.5
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn
Cr
Pb
Sn
Al
0.1
0.19 0.15 0.07 0.65 0.10 0.2 0.15 0.55 0.15 0.10 1.00 0.15 0.15 0.65 0.05 0.15 0.15
REM 0.10 REM REM REM 0.05 0.05 REM
AA SERIES 413 A 413.0 B 413.0
Cu
Si
Mg 0.10 0.10 0.05
Mn 0.35 0.35 0.35
Fe 2.00 1.30 0.50
Ni
Ti
Zn
Cr
Pb -
Sn
Al
Temper TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS condition N/mm2 -ATION % BHN 80 80 No Data No Data
1.00 11.0-13.0 1.00 11.0-13.0 0.10 11.0-13.0
0.50 0.50 -
0.50 0.50 -
0.05 0.25 0.10 -
0.15 REM ASCAST 296 2.5 0.15 REM ASCAST 241 3.5 REM No Data No Data No Data REM No Data No Data No Data
JIS SERIES AC3A AC4A AC4A
Cu
Si
Mg
Mn
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn
Cr
Pb
Sn
Al
Temper TENSILE ELONG HARDNESS condition N/mm2 -ATION % BHN 170 170 240 5 3 2 50 60 90
0.25 10.0-13.0 0.25 8.0-10.0
0.15 0.35 0.30-0.60 0.30-0.60
0.80 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.15 0.10 0.10 REM AS CAST 0.55 0.10 0.20 0.25 0.15 0.10 0.05 REM AS CAST T6
- 36 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS -7% SILICON,0.5% MAGNESIUM
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ALLOY INGOTS EN SERIES ENAB 42000 ENAB 42100 ENAB42200 AA SERIES 356.1 356.2 A356.1 A356.2 B 356.2 C 356.2 F 356.2 357.1 A357.2 B 357.2 C357.2 358.2 A444.2 JIS SERIES AC4C AC4CH Cu Si Mg Mn Fe 0.45 0.15 0.15 Fe Ni Ti Zn Cr Cr Pb Sn Al
0.15 6.5-7.5 0.25-0.65 0.35 0.03 6.5-7.5 0.30-0.45 0.10 0.03 6.5-7.5 0.50-0.70 0.10 Cu 0.25 0.1 0.20 0.1 0.03 0.03 0.1 0.05 0.1 0.03 0.03 0.1 0.05 Cu Si 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 7.6-8.6 6.5-7.5 Si Mg 0.25-0.45 0.30-0.45 0.30-0.45 0.30-0.45 0.30-0.45 0.30-0.45 0.17-0.25 0.45-0.60 0.45-0.70 0.45-0.60 0.50-0.70 0.45-0.60 0.05 Mg Mn
0.15 0.05-0.20 0.15 0.10-0.18 0.07 0.10-0.18 0.07 Ni Ni 0.05 0.05 Ti 0.25 0.20 0.2 0.2 0.04-0.20 0.04-0.20 0.04-0.20 0.2 0.04-0.20 0.04-0.20 0.04-0.20 0.12-0.20 0.2 Ti 0.20 0.20 Zn
0.15 0.05 REM REM REM Pb Pb Sn Al REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM Al
0.35 0.5 0.05 0.13-0.25 0.10 0.15 0.12 0.05 0.03 0.06 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.12 0.03 0.12 0.05 0.12 0.03 0.06 0.03 0.06 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.2 Mn Fe 0.5 0.2
0.35 0.05 0.1 0.05 0.03 0.03 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.03 0.03 0.1 0.05 0.1 Zn Cr
Sn
0.2 6.5-7.5 0.2-0.40 0.6 0.1 6.5-7.5 0.25-0.45 0.10
0.30 REM 0.10 0.05 0.05 0.05 REM
- 37 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS- 7% SILICON 0.5% MAGNESIUM
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES TEMPER CONDITIO TENSILE ELONGAN N/mm2 TION% T6 220 1 T6 220 1 T6 230 2 T6 250 1 TEMPER TENSILE ELONGACONDITIO N/mm2 TION% N T6 T6 No-data T6 No-data 262 283 No-data 283 No-data 5 10 No-data 3 No-data
EN SERIES ENAC 42000 ENAC 42000 ENAC 42100 ENAC42200
Cu 0.2 0.2 0.05 0.05
Si 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5
Mg 0.2-0.65 0.2-0.65 0.25-0.45 0.45-0.7
Mn 0.35 0.35 0.10 0.10
Fe Ni Ti Zn Cr Pb Sn Al 0.55 0.15 0.05-0.25 0.15 - 0.15 0.05 REM 0.55 0.15 0.05-0.25 0.15 - 0.15 0.05 REM 0.19 - 0.08-0.25 0.07 REM 0.19 - 0.08-0.25 0.07 - REM
HARDNESS BHN 75 75 75 85 HARDNESS BHN 80 90 No-data 100 No-data HARDNESS BHN 55 85
AA SERIES
Cu
Si
Mg
Mn
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn Cr Pb
Sn
Al
356 A 356.0 B 356.0 A357.0 B357.0
0.25 0.2 0.05 0.2 0.05
6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5 6.5-7.5
0.2-0.45 0.25-0.45 0.25-0.45 0.4-0.7 0.4-0.6
0.35 0.10 0.05 0.1 0.05
0.6 0.2 0.09 0.2 0.09
0.25 0.20 0.04-0.20 0.04-0.20 0.04-0.20
0.35 0.10 0.05 0.1 0.05
REM REM REM REM REM
JIS SERIES
Cu
Si
Mg
Mn
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn Cr Pb
Sn
Al
TEMPER TENSILE ELONGACONDITIO N/mm2 TION% N 150 230 3 2
AC4C AC4C
0.2 6.5-7.5 0.2-0.40 0.2 6.5-7.5 0.2-0.40
0.6 0.6
0.5 0.05 0.5 0.05
0.20 0.20
0.30 0.30 -
REM ASCAST REM T6
- 38 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS - 3-5% MAGNESIUM
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION INGOTS EN SERIES ENAB51000 ENAB 51100 ENAB51200 ENAB51300 ENAB51400 Cu 0.08 0.03 0.08 0.05 0.03 Si 0.45 0.45 2.5 0.35 1.3 Mg 2.7-3.5 2.7-3.5 8.5-10.5 4.8-6.5 4.8-6.5 Mn 0.45 0.45 0.55 0.45 0.45 Fe 0.45 0.4 0.45-0.9 0.45 0.45 Ni 0.1 Ti 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 Zn 0.1 0.1 0.25 0.1 0.1 Cr Pb 0.1 Sn Al
REM REM 0.1 REM - REM - REM
AA SERIES 511.1 511.2 512.2 513.2 514.2 516.1 A 535.1 JIS SERIES AC7A
Cu 0.15 0.1 0.10 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.1 Cu 0.1
Si 0.3-0.7 0.3-0.7 1.4-2.2 0.3 0.3 0.3-1.5 0.2 Si 0.2
Mg 3.6-4.5 3.6-4.5 3.6-4.5 3.6-4.5 3.6-4.5 2.6-4.5 6.6-7.5 Mg 3.5-5.5
Mn 0.35 0.1 0.10 0.1 0.1 0.15-0.40 0.1-0.25 Mn 0.6
Fe 0.4 0.3 0.35-0.7 0.3 0.3 0.35-0.7 0.15 Fe 0.3
Ni 0.25-0.40 Ni 0.05
Ti 0.25 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1-0.2 0.25 Ti 0.20
Zn 0.15 0.1 0.1 1.4-2.2 0.1 0.2 Zn 0.15
Cr -
Pb -
Sn
Al REM REM REM
- REM 0.1 REM - REM Sn Al
Cr
Pb
0.15 0.05 0.05 REM
- 39 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS - 3-5%MAGNESIUM
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES TEMPER ELONG TENSILE HARDNESS -ATION% Al CONDITI N/mm2 BHN ON REM AS CAST REM AS CAST REM AS CAST REM AS CAST 140 150 160 160 3 5 3 3 50 50 55 60
EN SERIES
Cu
Si
Mg
Mn
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn
Cr Pb Sn
ENAC 51000 ENAC 51100 ENAC 51300 ENAC51400
0.1 0.05 0.1 0.05
0.55 0.55 0.55 1.5
2.50-3.50 2.50-3.50 4.5-6.5 4.5-6.5
0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45
0.55 0.55 0.55 0.55
0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
AASERIES
Cu
Si
Mg
Mn
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn
Cr Pb Sn
TEMPER ELONG TENSILE HARDNESS -ATION% Al CONDITI N/mm2 BHN ON 50 50 No-data
511 514 516
0.15 0.3-0.7 3.5-4.5 0.35 0.5 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.35 3.5-4.5 0.35 0.5 0.25 0.15 0.30 0.30-1.5 2.5-4.5 0.15-0.4 0.35-1.0 0.25-0.40 0.1-0.2 0.2
REM ASCAST 145 3 REM ASCAST 172 9 T6 0.1 REM No-data No-data
JIS SERIES
Cu
Si
Mg
Mn
Fe
Ni
Ti
Zn
Cr Pb Sn
TEMPER ELONG TENSILE HARDNESS -ATION% Al CONDITI N/mm2 BHN ON 210 12 60
AC7A
0.1
0.2
3.5-5.5
0.6
0.2
0.05
0.20 0.10 0.15
0.05 REM ASCAST
- 40 -
COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ALUMINIUM CASTING ALLOYS - HIGH SILICON
EN SERIES
Cu
Si
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION - INGOT Mg Mn Fe Ni Ti 0.35 Mn 0.6 Fe 0.4 1 1.1 1 0.8 Fe 0.8 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.7-1.3 Ni 0.2 Ti
Zn 0.35 Zn
Cr Pb -
Sn
Al REM
ENAB 48000 0.8-1.5 10.5-13.5 0.9-1.5 AA SERIES A 390.1 B390.1 392.1 393.1 393.2 JIS SERIES AC8A AC8B AC9A AC9B Cu Si Mg
Cr Pb -
Sn
Al
4.0-5.0 16-18 0.50-0.65 0.1 4.0-5.0 16-18 0.5-0.65 0.50 0.4-0.8 18-20.0 0.9-1.2 0.2-0.6 0.7-1.1 21.0-23.0 0.8-1.3 0.1 0.7-1.1 21-23 0.8-1.3 0.1 Cu Si Mg Mn 0.15 0.5 0.5 0.5
0.2 0.1 0.1 0.20 1.40 0.5 0.2 0.4 2.0-2.5 0.10-0.20 0.1 2-2.5 0.1-0.2 0.1 Ni 0.8-1.5 0.1-1.0 0.5-1.5 0.5-1.5 Ti 0.20 0.2 0.2 0.2 Zn 0.15 0.5 0.2 0.2
REM 0.3 REM 0.3 REM REM - REM Sn 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Al REM REM REM REM
Cr Pb 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
0.8-1.3 11.0-13.0 0.7-1.3 2.0-4.0 8.5-10.5 0.5-1.5 0.5-1.5 22-24 0.5-1.5 0.5-1.5 18-20 0.5-1.5
- 41 -
C M A ISO F IN R A N LSTA D R S O P R NO TE N TIO A NAD A M IU A GA Y H HSILIC N LU IN MC STIN LLO S- IG O
C EM A O PO H IC LC M SITIO N ENSER IES C u Si M g M n Fe N i Ti Zn C Pb Sn r
M C A IC LPR PE TIE EHN A O R S ELO G TIO NA N HRN A D ESS TEM PER TEN SILE % Al C N ITIO N m O D N /m 2 BN H R EM T5 T6 200 280 <1 <1 90 100
EA N C48000 0.8-1.5 10.5-13.5 0.8-1.5 EA N C48000
0.35
0.7 0.7-1.3 0.25 0.35 -
A ASER IES
C u
Si
M g
M n
Fe
N i
Ti
Zn C Pb Sn r
Al
TEM PER TEN SILE ELO G TIO H R N N A N A D ESS BN H C N ITIO N m O D N /m 2 % 200 290 N o-data <1.0 <0.5 N o-data 110 N o-data
A390.0 392 393
4-5.0 16-18 0.45-0.65 0.1 0.4-0.8 18-20 0.8-1.2 0.2-0.6 0.7-1.1 21-23 0.7-1.3 0.10
0.5 1.5 1.3
0.2 0.1 0.5 0.20 0.50 2-2.5 0.1-0.2 0.1
R EM A A SC ST 0.3 R EM A A SC ST N o-data
JISS IES ER
C u
Si
M g
M n
Fe
N i
Ti
Zn C Pb Sn r
Al
TEM PER TEN SILE ELO G TIO H R N N A N A D ESS C N ITIO N m O D N /m 2 % BN H T6 T6 T6 270 170 270 N o-data N o-data N o-data 110 95 120
A 8A C A 9A C A 9B C
0.8-1.3 11.0-13.0 0.7-1.3 0.5-1.5 22-24 0.5-1.5 0.5-1.5 18-20 0.5-1.5
0.15 0.5 0.5
0.8 0.8-1.5 0.20 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.1 R EM 0.8 0.5-1.5 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 R EM 0.8 0.5-1.5 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 R EM
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Paper 4
The Process of Redesigning a Suggested Approach.

Introduction In the preceding papers we have seen how alloys are manufactured and how the alloy specifications determine to a great extent, the input material and thus, effectively, the cost of the alloy as well. We have also looked at the role of the different alloying elements, the effect of impurity elements and also compared current versions of different International Aluminium Alloy standards to give you an idea of what the rest of the world is doing. The range of specifications even within a family or Alloy group allowing a wider choice to the user is a key point to be noted.
At this juncture, it is possible many of you would be, to some extent, at least, convinced that there is some logic in reviewing your alloy specifications to determine whether any of the limits whether of alloying elements or impurities are over specified and require change. Remember, as was described in Paper 2, even seemingly minor changes can make a substantial impact on cost. This, the last paper is an attempt to provide you with some kind of road map on how to go about the process of redesigning your alloy specifications to obtain a reduction in your material costs.
A Few Pre-requirements Before, we get into the details there are a few points you need to bear in mind. First, this suggested road map is only one possible approach. There are many of you with several years of industry experience in design and development who may have better methods of going about the process. Also, what we propose may not be specifically applicable in toto to your component. Thus, please bear in mind that what we are going to spell out is just a suggested approach. The approach we intend spelling out is logical but cautious. It will definitely work but some may consider it time consuming. However, we felt that it would be best to lay down an exhaustive approach from which you can leave out steps if you are so inclined. Frankly, we will be surprised if you dont need to modify it to suit your organisation and product needs.
Secondly, do bear in mind that the objective of the exercise is cost saving and is meant to benefit your company. It is not an exercise to benefit the alloy manufacturer. After all, as a customer, you have every right to demand whatever specification you want, and, it is up to the alloy maker to supply it. And in fact, we at Sargam take pride in producing premium quality alloys and consistently producing alloys with tight specification limits. Thus, the purpose is not to get you to indiscriminately open up your specifications. That would be inviting disaster! What we have been talking about, and the question you are going to be addressing is which specification is optimal for you, from a price-performance point of view.
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This in fact brings me to the third point you should bear in mind. If at the end of the exercise you arrive at the conclusion that your existing specification is the most optimal, you should not consider the exercise as a waste of time! Remember, ruling out a specific option after careful examination is definitely progress! Fourth, this exercise cannot be done in isolation. You would need to involve the alloy manufacturer and the caster. Finally, it needs to be stressed that you must undertake this exercise with an open mind. If you get in with a prefixed idea that the whole exercise is a waste of time and that your existing specification is the most optimal, it is very likely that at the slightest hint of any hiccups in the development process you will give up. Remember a half-hearted approach will probably do more harm than good. If you are not convinced about the potential benefits of the exercise, better not try it at all. At the other extreme if you go in convinced that whichever changes you first attempt are the correct ones, you may end up brushing aside any adverse results that crop up during your trials. Thus, during the entire process of the study, you must be totally objective and avoid bias. It is also important that you convince your caster also to approach the exercise with an open mind.
The Steps in Redesigning Let us now look at the typical steps involved in the exercise. The FIRST step is to make this re-specification exercise the responsibility of a specific person or team.
The SECOND step is to identify the components for study. While you can and probably, should, investigate all components over a period of time, obviously, you must prioritize. What are the parameters based on which you prioritize, is of course a management decision, unique to each organisation. Some of the parameters could be: Consumption: Greater the monthly consumption (in tons) of a component, greater will be the potential savings. You might therefore want to take up such castings for study first. Casting intricacy: You may wish to start with castings that do not present too many complications in the foundry. If for instance, you have a component that your caster finds difficult to make consistently, with acceptable levels of rejection, he is unlikely to try out changes in specifications with an open mind. Application area: There could be certain castings, where the nature of the application, or its function, makes it not the right candidate for study, at least not till you have gained confidence in your and your foundrys ability to successfully handle the redesign process. Maturity of component: If the particular casting is still under development from other design or application perspectives, you might want to wait till this process is complete and
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the use of the component stabilises for some period before attempting a reevaluation exercise. On the other hand, if the casting, or the component or product in which the casting is fitted is, let us say, being phased out, it may make no sense to put in any kind of efforts in it. There could be other parameters such as the amount of time and resources you can spare etc. Any way it is best that based on certain clearly spelt out parameters you make out a priority list for the castings. Step 3: For the identified casting, it is best to do a quick check of the earlier design files, and drawings. You will be surprised to find the wealth of information available, which could save you a whole lot of time. For instance, certain specifications could have been changed earlier for certain reasons. If those reasons still exist, you may not want to, or need to, try and reverse those changes. On the other hand, if those reasons no longer exist, reversing the specification change could be an easy first step. There could also be basic information regarding the standard based on which the specification was developed and the year in which it was developed. This will give you pointers to comparing the standard then and now and identifying change parameters to try out. I would like to reiterate that this step is very important and even if the archival information is not very well organised, it is well worth putting in the effort to track it down. Step 4: the next step is to do a status check. First check supply details and inspection and quality records for the particular component over a reasonable period of time, for hints on which areas to pursue and which to avoid. Second, check the chemical composition of accepted castings presently in use. For this, pull out random samples from accepted lots of recent supplies and conduct chemical analysis on them. If there are any parameters out of the stated specification but with the casting still meeting acceptance criteria it will give you greater confidence and may be even a direction to proceed. Third, machine test specimens from accepted castings and, if possible, ask your caster to separately cast a test-bar along with the next supply and check both for all required mechanical properties. Please bear in mind, however, that the mechanical properties of a specimen machined from a casting will be inferior to the properties attained in a separately cast test-bar. Repeat the chemical and physical property check on at least two supplies. More, if consistent values are not obtained. Step 5: It will be a good idea to visit the caster and observe the foundry practice currently in place. If required this job can be carried out by a foundry specialist. Also visit and note down heat treatment cycles and machining operations. Details of cutting speed, feed and cutting tools and equipment in use can come in handy. Step 6: Next, summarise the gathered information to form the base line data or control data. This will list out (a) all the functional requirements of the casting (b) the physical properties as stated in requirements or being met by existing accepted castings, whichever is lower (c) existing rejection rates after casting, after machining etc. This will be the basis for comparison to determine whether the changes carried out subsequently were successful or not and hence should be prepared with care.
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Step 7: The next step is to discuss with the alloy maker, sharing the historical information, if any, and the baseline data and then deciding on the parameters to try and alter. One or more revised specifications to be tried should be listed out. It is extremely important at this stage to refer to international standard specifications for similar alloys while carrying out this exercise. Bear in mind that this is not some arbitrary exercise but a very studied activity to be done in consultation with the alloy maker. The cost implications of each of the revised specifications should be understood and noted. Remember, the purpose of the entire exercise is to reduce costs and therefore, before you get to the next step, you must know what the potential rewards for successfully completing the changes will be. Step 8: The next step is to carry out trials. The required quantity of the new specification alloy should be obtained and given to the foundry along with a batch of the regular material. Castings should be produced using both batches, if possible, simultaneously in two crucibles or at least as close together as possible to avoid the effect of other variations in foundry parameters from affecting the results. Test bars should also be cast from both melts. You should ensure that the foundry follows identical foundry practices for both melts. The two sets of castings and the test bars should be separately identified. If any heat treatment is required, both sets of castings and test bars should be heat treated simultaneously. Subsequent machining operations can then be carried out on the two sets of castings taking care to preserve the identification. Physical properties of the test bars should then be compared. For the two sets of castings, quantum and percentage of stage rejections should be tabulated and studied. Step 9: The previous set of operations should be repeated at least once more on fresh lots of metal. The results of both trials should then be critically compared with the base line data. If there are unacceptable or inexplicable variations between the two field trials, further trials should be conducted till repeatability is achieved. Step 10: The next step depends on the results of the trials. If the results are satisfactory, depending on the nature of the component, field trials or accelerated performance trials can be carried out. The batch size can then be increased and random castings selected from the batch and tested. Consistent satisfactory results should increase the confidence levels sufficiently to freeze the revised specifications. At this point pleased recall the discussions on current international standards. You would have noted that currently almost all international specifications specify separate limits for alloy ingots and finished castings. It is recommended that at the end of your exercise as well, you end up with revised specifications for the alloy ingots and castings separately. This will help avoid disputes and ensure better control over all your processes. In case the results are not satisfactory, a failure or defect analysis should be carried out involving the alloy supplier and the caster. This will determine whether any modifications will help. It should be borne in mind that if required, minor modifications in foundry
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practice pouring temperatures, for example or even minor modifications in the tooling may be worth carrying out considering the future savings possible. Another aspect to track is the pick-up in impurity limits and drop in Magnesium limits due to the addition of runners and risers at the foundry. The key point to note is that this is an exercise in material specification engineering. Like any other engineering project, this too should be carried out in a controlled manner with a clear plan and a sustained effort. Without this the chances of success will be remote.
Conclusion This then is a broad outline of a suggested approach to the design exercise. You may, as I stated earlier, wish to modify by adding or subtracting steps to suit your individual needs. Please feel free to do so. We are not the users of the castings, and you know your products better than we do. However, we know Aluminium alloys and would like to state categorically that the alloy specifications are not static to be kept in a black box never to be touched or reviewed. Nor are they uncontrollable or incomprehensible. The specifications are just like any other engineering parameter and should change to reflect changing material availability, foundry practices and product application areas. We hope that through this workshop we would have convinced you about this. Needless to say, Sargam with its years of experience, up to date information on international standards and its well-equipped laboratory is at your service to work with you in any such design project you may take up.
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Sargam Metals Pvt. Ltd. 2, Ramavaram Road, Manapakkam, Chennai 600089, Tamil Nadu, INDIA Tel: +91-44-249-0885, +91-44-249-1547; Fax: +91-44-2491651 email: sargam_metals@vsnl.com
web site: www.sargammetals.com
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Redesigning Aluminium Foundry Alloys for Material Cost Reduction

SARGAM METALS P.LTD

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FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY

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Foreword Aluminium Foundry Alloys Position in the Aluminium Chain

Why Redesign? The Impact of Alloy Specifications on Cost

Role of alloying elements and impurities

A Comparison of major international specifications for Aluminium Foundry Alloys

The Process of Redesigning a suggested approach

Sargam Metals Pvt. Ltd.

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Aluminium Foundry Alloys Position in the Aluminium Chain

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Consumers of mill products and castings Manufacturers of end products

End Products Useful Life End of Life Scrap

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Why Redesign? The Impact of Alloy Specification on Cost

Cu-2.33%, Si-9.09%, Mg-0.05%, Mn 0.22%, Fe-1.01%, Zn-1.12% Alloy Type - A380.0

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Transmission Housing - Type II

Cu-2.48%, Si-11.37%, Mg-0.10%, Mn-0.21%, Fe-0.81%, Zn-2.4% Alloy Type-383.1

Cu-2.50%, Si-6.13%, Mg-0.27%, Fe-0.42%, Zn-0.22% - Alloy Type AC2B

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Cu-3.19%, Si-8.71%, Mg-0.05%,Mn-0.18%, Fe-0.90%, Zn.1.85% Alloy Type - A-380.1

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ROLE OF ALLOYING ELEMENTS AND IMPURITIES

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ALUMINIUM-COPPER EQUILIBRIUM ( PHASE) DIAGRAM -Al RICH END

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11.60% silicon eutectic AL+SI COMPOUND

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A Comparison of Major International Specifications for Aluminium Foundry Alloys

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Al REM REM REM REM REM REM REM REM

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EN SERIES ALLOY En Ac 45000 En AC 45100 En AC 45200 En AC 45300 En AC 45400

3.0-5.0 2.6-3.6 2.5-4.0 1.0-1.5 2.6-3.6

AA SERIES 308 A 319.0 319 318

Cu 4.0-5.0 3.0-4.0 3.0-4.0 3.0-4.0

Mn 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5

Fe 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Ni 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35

5.0-6.0 0.1 5.5-6.5 0.1 5.5-6.5 0.1 5.5-6.5 0.1-0.6

3.0-4.5 4.0-6.0 2.0-4.0 5.0-7.0

0.80 0.30 1.00 0.35