3104 Aluminium Alloy Flat Ingot Organization Characteristics And Homogenization Treatment Research

3104Aluminum alloy is major material for manufacturing drink can due to its high strength, strong corrosion resistance and good formability. The can body becomes thinner and thinner to reduce cost. It requires excellent metallurgical quality of3104Aluminum alloy ingot. The microstructure of alloy has strong influence on the formability of ingot and the performance of final products. After hot working, the structure of alloy breakes, but the micro-inhomogeneity of alloy elements still exists. The final products are badly influenced by dendritic segregation of ingot without homogenization treatment. In this sense, according to the metallurgical defects of3104Aluminum alloy’s flat ingot, the characteristics of second phases, casting defects and the formation mechanism, homogenization treatment, precipitation behavior during homogenization and homogenization kinetics were studied, in order to provide experimental guidance of melting and casting, homogenization treatment.The characteristics of second phases and casting defects of3104Aluminum alloy’s flat ingot were investigated by optical microscopy(OM), scanning electronic microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometry(EDS). The results show that the main second phases in the flat ingot are Al6(MnFe), four elementary phase of (Al,Fe,Mn,Si), Mg2Si and Si-rich phase. The main metallurgical defects are inclusions which include oxides, residual fluxes and intermetallic compounds, shrink hole and looseness which is mainly caused by inclusions, gas pore and segregation of Mn and Fe.The homogenization treatment and precipitation behavior during homogenization was analyzed by X ray diffraction(XRD), transmission electronic microscopy (TEM). The results show that the optimal homogenization treatment is600℃for12hour, which is consistent with the kinetic result. During the homogenization treatment, some of Al6(MnFe) particles transform to a-Al12(MnFe)3Si particles, and precipitation of Mn-rich particles happens. With the increase of homogenization temperature, the amount of Mn-rich precipitates increases, and reaches the peak at450℃, then decreases. The precipitates coarse with the time prolonged at a giving homogenization temperature...