An internal cooling agent is used in rapid slurry forming -RSF- process to produce a high solid fraction slurry for a short period of time. In the process used in this research, the swarf which is known to be a low enthalpy material was added to the melt as the internal cooling agent. During the process, the swarf started to melt and a semi-solid slurry with a relatively high solid fraction was formed. This slurry was formed by exchanging the enthalpies between the low and high enthalpy materials. A commercial Al-Si-Cu alloy, i.e. AS9U3 Aluminum alloy, was used in this investigation. The microscopic examination showed that the Al-Si eutectic colonies start to melt during the melting process of swarf material resulting in the formation of globular Alpha-Al grains due to the multiplication of secondary dendrites arms. The fracture of dendrites arms and the subsequent spheroidization were suggested to be the origin of non-dendritic globular grains in the final microstructure. The amount of primary globular Alpha-phase was measured by the image analysis software. The results showed that during high pressure die-casting of AS9U3 Aluminum alloy using 4 mm thick samples, around 35 percent solid has been formed at the temperature of 580 ºC.

Keywords