Method and apparatus for semi-solid material processing
AssigneesUT-Battelle, LLC, University of Tennessee Research Foundation
InventorsQingyou Han, Xiaogang Jian, Hanbing Xu, Thomas T. Meek
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Abstract
A method of forming a material includes the steps of: vibrating a molten material at an ultrasonic frequency while cooling the material to a semi-solid state to form non-dendritic grains therein; forming the semi-solid material into a desired shape; and cooling the material to a solid state. The method makes semi-solid castings directly from molten materials (usually a metal), produces grain size usually in the range of smaller than 50 μm, and can be easily retrofitted into existing conventional forming machine.
Claims10
A method of forming a material, the method comprising:
- transferring molten or semi-solid process material directly to a die-casting machine including a shot-sleeve;
- and
- ultrasonic processing the process material in the shot-sleeve,
- wherein transferring includes inserting an ultrasonic processor into a transverse opening in the shot-sleeve just ahead of an injection ram, the ultrasonic processor comprising a second sleeve for containing the process material and a transducer positioned to transmit ultrasonic vibrations to the process material.
A machine for forming a material, the machine comprising:
- a die-casting machine including a shot-sleeve and a casting die,
- wherein an ultrasonic processor is incorporated directly into the shot-sleeve, the ultrasonic processor including a second sleeve for containing molten or semi-solid process material and being advanceable in the shot sleeve and a transducer positioned to transmit ultrasonic vibrations to the process material, and
- wherein the shot-sleeve includes a transverse opening sized to receive the ultrasonic processor, the opening just ahead of an injection ram when the injection ram is retracted.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.