Melt Conditioned Direct Chill Casting (MC-DC) Process for Production of High Quality Aluminium Alloy Billets

A novel direct chill (DC) casting process, melt conditioned direct chill (MC-DC) casting process, has been developed for production of high quality aluminium alloy billets. In the MC-DC casting process, a high shear device is submerged in the sump of the DC mould to provide intensive melt shearing, which in turn, disperses potential nucleating particles, creates a macroscopic melt flow to uniformly distribute the dispersed particles, and maintains a uniform temperature and chemical composition throughout the melt in the sump. Experimental results have demonstrated that, the MC-DC casting process can produce aluminium alloy billets with significantly refined microstructure and reduced cast defects. In this paper, we give an overview of the MC-DC casting process and report on results obtained from an industrial scale trial