Influence of fluidized sand bed heat treatment on the performance of Al-Si cast alloys

The present study was undertaken to arrive at a better understanding of the effects of solution heat-treatment time and melt treatment on the microstructure and tensile properties of T6-tempered A356.2 and B319.2 cast alloys heat treated using a fluidized sand bed furnace (FB) as opposed to a conventional convection furnace (CF). The alloys investigated were subjected to solution heat treatment at 530 °C and 495 °C, respectively, for times ranging from 0.5 to 24 h, warm water quenching, and conventional T6 aging at 155 °C and 180 °C, respectively, for times of 0.5, 1, 5, 8 and 12 h. The results revealed that the tensile strength of these alloys is more responsive to an FB heat treatment than to a CF treatment for solution treatment times of up to 8 h. A significant increase in strength is observed in the FB heat-treated samples after short aging times of 0.5 h and 1 h, the trend continuing up to 5 h. Analysis of the tensile properties in terms of quality index charts showed that both modified and non-modified 319 and 356 alloys display the same quality, or better, after only 2 h treatment in a fluidized bed compared to 10 h using a CF treatment. The 319 alloys show signs of overaging after 8 h of aging using a CF, whereas with an FB, overaging occurs only after 12 h. The Si particle characteristics of the alloys investigated show that the smallest particle size is obtained after solution heat treatment using a fluidized sand bed, the optimum solution heat-treatment time being 0.5 h for modified alloys, and up to 5 h for non-modified alloys.Center of Excellence for Research in Engineering Materials, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabi