Al-Ti-C grain refiner form a relatively new alternative to the existing class of Al-Ti-B type grain refiners for achieving fine equiaxed structures in aluminum alloys during casting and solidification. The present study was carried out to investigate the influence of Al-Ti-C master alloys on the grain structure of Al-7Si alloys. The present study also investigates the relationship between grain refining efficiency and concentrations of Fe and Si in hypo-eutectic Al-Si alloys using Al-3Ti-0.13C master alloys. It is found that several parameters affect significantly the grain refining performance in silumin alloys. The present study reports the influence of various parameters such as alloy content, master alloy addition level, melt holding time and superheat on the grain refining efficiency in Al-7Si alloys.

The present work was undertaken to investigate the mutual effect of the individual melt treatment commonly applied in aluminum foundries such as grain refining, modification, degassing and filtration on the microstructures and the mechanical properties. A357 alloys were fabricated through various melt treatments such as degassing by gas bubbling filtration, modification via the addition of Al-Sr master alloy, grain refining through the addition of Al-Ti-B master alloy and filtration before pouring of the melt. Each melt treatment was performed at its optimum condition reported in the literatures. The effects of each melt treatment and their interactions on the microstructures and mechanical properties of A357 alloy were examined.

Some alloying elements such as Cr, B, Ti and Si were added individually or as a mixture to Fe-30 at.%Al alloys. The alloys were melted using an arc furnace and then heat-treated for homogenization at 1000$^{\circ}C$ for 7 days and followed by rolling at 1000$^{\circ}C$. The alloying elements on rolling characteristics were investigated by the microstructures and fracture mode before and after rolling. The microstructures before rolling showed that all of the alloys had equiaxed grains. On the other hand, the microstructures of rolling plane as well as its perpendicular plane became elongated after rolling. The alloys such as Fe-30Al, Fe-30Al-3Ti, Fe-30Al-0.5B, Fe-30Al-5Cr and Fe-30Al-3Ti-0.5B revealed better rolling behaviour from the point that intergranular and cleavage fractures were not fundamentally occurred. But the addition of 5Ti or 3Si to Fe-Al alloys had detrimental effects. The Ti-added alloy system such as Fe-30Al-5Ti, Fe-30Al-5Ti-5Cr, Fe-30Al-3Ti-5Cr and Fe-30Al-5Ti-0.5B were cracked through grain and showed cleavage fracture. The Si-added alloy system such as Fe-30Al-5Si, Fe-27Al-3Si and Fe-27Al-5Cr-3Si were cracked along the grain boundary and showed intergranular fracture. $DO_3{\leftrightarrow}B_2$ transition temperature of Fe-30at.%Al alloy was 520$^{\circ}C$, whereas the addition of 3Ti and 3Ti+0.5B comparably increased the temperature to 797 and 773$^{\circ}C$, respectively.

It has been a major concern in the foundry that steel castings manufactured by the evaporative pattern casting process encounter the carbon pick-up problem. A carbon rich layer at the evaporative pattern cast surface is a result of interactions between the gaseous products from foamed polystyrene and the molten metal. The carburized layer with a high hardness makes it difficult to machine the casting. In this study, the influence of the density of EPS pattern and coatings on carbon pick-up phenomena of S25C and S45C commercial carbon cast steel were investigated. As the density of EPS pattern is increased, the carbon concentration of decomposed pattern is increased and the thickness of carburized layer at the surface of steel castings is increased. Also as the density of coatings is increased, the permeability of coatings is decreased and the thickness of carburized layer at the surface of steel castings is increased. S25C steel which has lower original carbon content compared to S45C steel exhibited severe carburization.