Special methods and processes

At IFUM, not only established forming processes are investigated. The interest in more efficient production technology and high-performance components is the motivation for the development of specialized processes and special procedures.

Examples are Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) or the processing and recycling of aluminium chips. The former is a process that can form very fine-grained microstructures in metal materials. For this purpose, the material is pressed through two angled channels of identical cross-section. In this way, the metal structure is sheared and refined.

The recycling of aluminium scrap into secondary aluminium is usually carried out by melting down and subsequent continuous casting of the molten material. Chips are subject to high melting losses in the form of burn-off due to their large surface area in relation to their volume. At the institute, an alternative recycling approach is being investigated which leads to considerably lower material losses. For this purpose, aluminium chips are cold-pressed, sintered and subjected to various forming processes.

Publication

Solid-state recycling of aluminium chips is a promising alternative to energy- and material-intensive smelting. The process consists of Field Assisted Sintering (FAST) followed by extrusion of the semi-finished products. This approach, which does not require high shear deformation to break up oxide layers, provides better quasi-static and cyclic material properties.

„Electrical resistance-based fatigue assessment and capability prediction of extrudates from recycled field-assisted sintered EN AW-6082 aluminium chips"

Alexander Koch, Martin Bonhage, Mirko Teschke, Lukas Luecker, Bernd-Arno Behrens, Frank Walther (2020); Materials Characterization, Volume 169, Seite 110644