Structural analysis of iron based intermetallic phases in secondary AlSi6Cu4 cast alloy

The use of secondary aluminum alloys is increasing because it contributes to the decrease of production costs. However, these alloys contain bigger amount of iron. Iron has a negative effect and therefore its elimination is necessary in order to add some elements, which are also called correctors of iron. The most frequently used corrector is manganese. Another quite often used correctors are chromium, potassium, magnesium, vanadium. In the following work, vanadium is used as a corrector of iron phases. The application of vanadium in aluminum alloys has a positive impact on their mechanical properties, increases the tensile strength, ductility and hardness. As experimental material AlSi6Cu4 alloy was used. It was alloyed by master alloy AlFe10. After adding to the master alloy the iron content, the critical value in the alloy exceeded. Vanadium was added to AlSi6Cu4 alloy in different quantities. The image analysis (software NIS-Elements) was used for quantifying the amount of iron based intermetallic phases and determination of average values.