A Study of Microstructure and Porosity Formation in High-Pressure Die-Casting

The technology of high-pressure die-casting (HPDC) of aluminum alloys is one of the most used and most economical technology for mass production of castings. High-pressure die-casting technology is characterized by the production of complex, thin-walled and dimensionally accurate castings. An important role is placed on the effective reduction of costs in the production process, wherein the combination with the technology of high-pressure die-casting is the possibility of recycling using returnable material. The experimental part of the paper focuses on the analysis of a gradual increase of the returnable material amount in combination with a commercial purity alloy for the production of high-pressure die-castings. The returnable material consisted of the so-called foundry waste (defective castings, venting and gating systems, etc.). The first step of the experimental castings evaluation consisted of numerical simulations, performed to determine the points of the casting, where porosity occurs. In the next step, the evaluation of areal porosity and microstructural analysis was performed on experimental castings with different amounts of returnable material in the batch. The evaluation of the area porosity showed only a small effect of the increased amount of the returnable material in the batch, where the worst results were obtained by the casting of the alloy with 90% but also with 55% of the returnable material in the batch. The microstructure analysis showed that the increase in returnable material in the batch was visibly manifested only by a change in the morphology of the eutectic Si.