Microstructural Characteristics by Compression Holding Time in Semi-Solid Forging

반용융 단조에서 가압유지 시간에 의한 미세조직의 특성

The technology of Semi-Solid Forging (SSF) has been actively developed to fabricate near-net-shape products using light and hardly formable materials. Generally, the SSF process is composed of slug heating, forming, compression -holding and ejecting step. After forming step in SSF, the slug is compressed during a certain holding time in order to be completely filled in the die cavity and be accelerated in solidification rate. The compression holding time that can affect microstructural characteristics and shape of products is important to make decision, where it is necessary to find overall heat transfer coefficient properly which has large effect on heat transfer between slug and die. This paper presents the procedure to predict compression holding time of obtaining the final shaped part with information of temperature and solid fraction for a cylindrical slug at compression holding step in closed-die compression process using heat transfer analysis considering latent heat by means of finite element method. The influence of the predicted compression holding time on microstructural characteristics of products is finally investigated by experiment.