Introduction:

AlSi cast alloys are widely used in the automotive industry as popular alloys owing to their excellent
castability, weldability and corrosion resistance. Aluminium alloys also offer important advantages in
terms of their specific weight and thermal conductivity. AlSi cast alloys are especially used in
tribological applications. However, in the manufacturing application absolute aluminium and its
alloys still have few problems such as comparatively low strength, unsteady mechanical properties.
these problems can be overcome with modification of microstructure. Silicon is a hard and wear
resistant material. The hardness and wear resistance of AlSi cast alloys increase with increasing the
Si content. However, the mach inability and ductility of these cast alloys decrease with the Si content.
These problems are caused mainly by the large primary Si particles in cast alloys Therefore, the Si
content is limited up to about 20% mass in commercial applications. Hyper-eutectic AlSi cast alloys
are usually treated with phosphorus to refine the primary Si particles. The size of Si particles,
however, is about 30mm at the minimum size in conventional gravity casting process. Laser surface
modification is ideally suited to refining the microstructure by rapid melting and solidification, and
changing the concentration of Si in the surface of substrate alloys by alloying. In the laser surface
alloying process, the Si content of the alloyed layer can be increased up to 80% mass. The hardne
ss and wear resistance of the laser alloyed layer increased with increasing the Si content. On the other
hand, in the laser melting process, the size of the primary Si particle in hyper-eutectic Alhigh Si cast
alloy can be reduced from 30 to 10mm due to rapid solidification. The wear resistance of the lasermelted layer was higher than that of the substrate. But the influence of the size of primary Si particle
on wear resistance is not clear. Therefore, in the present work the authors investigate the laser surface
remelting of hyper-eutectic AlSi cast alloy to improve the surface hardness and the wear resistance
by refining the primary Si particle. In the past years there has been interest in the use of laser
equipment for the understanding of corrosion-resistant surfaces on engineering alloys related on steel.
More recently, there has been a increasing interest in improving the corrosion performance of
aluminium alloys by laser process similar to those used for steel. The process mainly involved are
laser surface melting (LSM) and laser surface alloying (LSA). A range of exclusive microstructures is
produced by these processes resulting from the non-equilibrium cooling environment established
when the comparatively thin laser melted surface layer is allowed to resolidify in contact with the
unchanged substrate which gives a large heat sink. Over the last 15 years, many studies on aluminium
laser surface treatment have been carried out with the objective of improving the mechanical
characteristics of cladded coatings (hardness, elastic modulus, wear resistance). Several authors have
already investigated the formation of intermetallic aluminium compounds (alloys AlNi , AlFe, Al
Cu, AlMo and AlCr) and silicon precipitation in AlSi alloys.

Aluminium Silicon Alloys:

Aluminium alloys are grouped according to the major alloying elements they contain. Their use as
structural materials is determined by their physical properties (primarily influenced by their chemical
composition) and the mechanical properties (influenced by chemical composition and microstructure).
The characteristic property of aluminium alloys is relatively high tensile strength in relation to density
compared with that of other cast alloys, such as ductile cast iron or cast steel. The high specific tensile
strength of aluminium alloys (222 kN-m/kg) is very strongly influenced by their composed polyphase
microstructure. The silicon content in standardized commercial cast aluminium silicon alloys is in the
range of 523 wt%. Depending on the Si concentration in weight percentage, the Al-

Si alloy systems are divided into three major categories: Hypoeutectic (<12 wt % Si), Eutectic (12-13
wt %Si), Hypereutectic (14-25 wt % Si). The properties of a specific alloy can be attributed to the
individual physical properties of its main phase components (aluminium solid solution and silicon
crystals) and to the volume fraction and morphology of these components. Silicon is a better
candidate as an alloying element for aluminium castings. This is because it increases the fluidity of
the melt, reduces the melting temperature, decreases the contraction associated with solidification and
is very cheap as a raw material. Silicon also has a low density (2,340 kg/m3 ), which may be an
advantage in reducing the overall weight of the cast component. Silicon has a very low solubility in
aluminium, it therefore precipitates as virtually pure silicon, which is hard and hence improves the
abrasion resistance. Silicon has a diamond crystal structure and is consequently very brittle. Large
plates of silicon are, therefore, detrimental to the mechanical properties. Generally silicon nucleates
on aluminium phosphide particles present in the melt as impurities. Viscosity of the aluminium melt
rises with increasing Si content. Al12Si wt% alloys are most common. This represents a typical
composition for a casting alloy because it has the lowest possible melting temperature (574 C).

MODIFICATION OF Al-Si ALLOYS:

Many researchers has done lots of experiments to modify the coarse flaky structure of Al-Si cast alloy.

(Nogita et al.2004) investigated the eutectic silicon modification efficiency of 14 kinds of

rare-earth elements in the Al-10Si alloy. It was suggested that the structural transition was
limited to refinement of the plate-like silicon structure, with exception of Eu. However, in
recent studies, many references reported positive effects of adding rare-earth elements,
including La, Er, Ce, Sc, and Y on the eutectic silicon of Al-Si alloys, indicating that the
coarse plate-like or acicular eutectic silicon was transformed to a fine fibrous or laminar
morphology.
The remarkable micro structural changes in hypereutectic Al Si alloys can be produced
by treating the melt with additives that introduce a small amount of phosphorus. In order
to improve the toughness, Si particles must be refined and spheroidized. For many years,
sodium (Na) has been the prevailing modifying agent for hypoeutectic Al Si casting
alloys. However, the problems associated with the use of Na as a modifier attracted many
investigators to research for alternative element(s) for modifying Al Si alloys. Recently,
strontium (Sr) or stibium (Sb) has been accepted as a modifier, respectively. Dynamic
fracture toughness and dynamic crack propagation resistance of Al-Si cast alloy are
strongly improved by adding Sr(T.Kobayashi. 2000).

LASER MELTING OF Al-Si ALLOYS:

laser melting of hyper-eutectic Al-Si cast alloy was conducting using The multi-mode continuous
wave carbon dioxide laser beam with a maximum power of 5.5 kW and travelling speed of 100mm/s.
The laser beam was irradiated under defocusing conditions. A focal point of the laser beam was set up
for the specimen. A defocused distance between focal point and specimen surface was varied from 10
to 40 mm. The diameter of the laser beam was 1.5 to 4 mm at each defocused distance. The surface
morphology of the laser remelted track was smooth even on the overlapped area. it was observed that
The size of primary Si particles in the remelted layer decreased with decreasing the defocused
distance of the laser beam. A minimum diameter of 3mm can be obtained, and was much smaller than
that of the base metal,30mm. The hardness of the remelted layer increased as decreasing the primary
Si size and reached a maximum of 120 HV and 140 HV for Al20 and 30 mass%Si cast alloys,
respectively. The wear resistance of the remelted layer increased as the primary Si size decreased, and
was better with a high volume fraction of Si particles(S. Tomida et al. 2003).

Laser cladding of Al substrate was carried out using a Nd:YAG laser and a coaxial powder

injection system Reinforcements were constituted of TiC particles (50150m) in the range
of 030 vol.%. The matrix was composed of aluminium with 0, 12, 30 and 40 wt.% Si. it
was seen that the Coatings were very well bonded to the substrate. The matrix
microstructure was hypoeutectic or hypereutectic depending on Si concentration and
carbides appeared unaffected by the treatment. Si content and TiC reinforcement ratio
increased the bulk coating hardness up to a maximum value of 250 HV. The adhesive
wear behaviour changed strongly with the Si and TiC contents. Hypoeutectic alloys (Si
12 wt.%) with-out TiC reinforcement showed a severe wear dominated by extensive
plastic flow and significant wear scars. With TiC addition, a mild wear was observed that
is characterised by a low wear rate and a fine and homogenous damage. In the case of
hypereutectic alloys (Si30%) without TiC reinforcement,wear was also mild and the
wear rate was similar to the one observed on Al12Si/30 vol.% TiC coating. Addition of
TiC reinforcements accelerated the deterioration of these hyper- eutectic alloys due to
surface fatigue. The TiC reinforcement was harmful in hypereutectic Al/Si coatings.
Combination of four phenomena can explain all wear mechanisms observed on the Albased MMC coatings: deformation of the coating surface, friction, tribolayer formation
and delamination( L. Dubourg et al. 2005).
The microstructure and properties of Al-12 wt.% Si/30 wt.% SiC coatings prepared by
laser cladding depends strongly on the processing parameters, particularly power density
and interaction time. For an interaction time of 0.08 s and a power density of 330 MW/m 2
, corresponding to a specific energy of 26 MJ/m 2, SiC remains essentially undissolved.
The microstructure of the coatings consists of SiC particles dispersed in a matrix of
primary -Al dendrites and interdendritic -Al+Si eutectic. For higher specific energies
(58 and 87 MJ/m2) SiC reacts and dissolves in molten Al, leading to a microstructure
consisting of a small proportion of SiC, Al 4 SiC4 and Si particles dispersed in a matrix of
-Al+Si eutectic. The SiC particles concentrate at the bottom of the clad, where the
temperature is lower. The coatings prepared using specific energies of 58 and 26 MJ/m 2
present average hardness values of 250 and 120 HV, respectively. Despite its higher
hardness, the wear rate of the former coating (1.710 4mm3/m) is significantly higher
than that of the latter (0.4310-4mm3/m).Unlike Al4SiC4 and Si, SiC particles do not
significantly harden the material, but they considerably improve its abrasive wear
resistance. As a result, the processing parameters should be selected so that dissolution of
SiC is avoided as much as possible(R. Anandkumar et al.. 2007).

References: