A Study on the Casting Variables in the Horizontal Continuous Casting of Pure Al and Al-5wt%Si Alloy Rods

수평식 연속주조법에 의한 순Al 및 Al-5wt%Si 합금 주괴제조시 주조변수에 관한 고찰

The effect of casting variables for making pure Al and Al-5wt%Si alloy rods free from any surface and inside defects was studied by adopting the horizontal continuous casting method with heated mold. The rods were cast under the casting conditions such as the mold temperature of $670{\sim}690^{\circ}C$, water flow rate of $0.2{\sim}0.6{\ell}/min$, and rod diameter of $4{\sim}8mm$, when the melt temperature and mold to cooler distance was fixed at $700^{\circ}C$ and 20mm, respectively. The results represented that the casting speed for good quality rod increased as the water flow rate increased, whereas, the casting speed decreased as the rod diameter or mold temperature increased. The statistical analysis of $2^3$ factorial design was also applied and the results represented that the averaged optimum casting speed for pure Al(302mm/min) was higher than that of Al-5wt%Si alloy(273mm/min) resulting from the difference of superheat applied. The effect of rod diameter on the optimum casting speed was the highest for pure Al as well as Al-5wt%Si alloy. The effect of water flow rate and mold temperature on the optimum casting speed was in decreasing order.