Advantages and disadvantages of aluminum alloy forging machining process?
Aluminum forging is an important metal working process with the following advantages and disadvantages:
- Advantages：
High specific strength: Aluminum alloy itself is less dense, after forging, its strength can be significantly improved, the specific strength (ratio of strength to density) is much higher than many traditional metal materials, so it is widely used in aerospace, automotive and other fields that have requirements on weight, which can reduce the weight of the structure and still ensure the strength and reliability of the structure at the same time.
Good corrosion resistance: Aluminum alloys have good corrosion resistance because the surface of the alloy is prone to forming a dense oxide film, which effectively prevents outside oxygen, moisture, etc. from coming into contact with the aluminum alloy matrix. After forging, the internal organization of aluminum alloy is more dense, and the integrity and stability of the oxide film is also better, which further improves its corrosion resistance and reduces the maintenance cost and safety hazards caused by corrosion.
Good processing performance: Aluminum alloy has good plasticity, and it is easy to realize various complex shapes in the forging process. At the same time, the forged aluminum alloy has good cutting and processing performance, which can be easily followed by mechanical processing, such as drilling, milling, grinding, etc., to meet the precision requirements of different parts.
Strong recyclability: Aluminum alloy is a recyclable material, the energy consumption for recycling is only about 5% of the energy consumption for primary aluminum production, and the performance loss of recycled aluminum alloy is small. In today’s environmentally friendly and resource recycling world, the recyclability of aluminum alloy forging products gives them high environmental and economic benefits. - Disadvantages
Plasticity is limited: the plasticity of aluminum alloy is greatly affected by the alloy composition and forging temperature. When the content of alloying elements increases, its plasticity decreases and it is sensitive to the deformation speed. This requires precise control of parameters such as alloy composition, forging temperature and deformation speed during the forging process, otherwise forging defects are likely to occur.
Easy to adhere to the die: due to the aluminum and iron can be solid solution, aluminum alloy in the forging process is easy to stick in the die, which will affect the surface quality of the forgings and dimensional accuracy, but also may lead to increased wear and tear of the die, increase the maintenance cost of the die and the frequency of replacement. Although there are specialized lubricants that can improve the situation, additional costs and measures are still needed to solve the adhesion problem.
Narrow forging temperature range: Most aluminum alloys are forged within a temperature range of 150°C, and some even as low as 70°C. This requires that a variety of heating methods must be used during the aluminum forging process to tightly control the temperature to ensure that the aluminum alloy has good malleability. For some aerospace and military products with strict performance requirements, isothermal forging and other complex and expensive processes are usually required to ensure product quality.
High process deformation requirements: aluminum alloy forging usually does not allow less process and large deformation, otherwise it is easy to produce coarse crystals or cracks. Therefore, it is necessary to reasonably allocate the total deformation, the process of opening the billet has a greater impact on the molding results of the final product. And because the temperature of the workpiece is easy to be lower than the required forging temperature after several times of processing, often need to be heated again, which increases the complexity of the process and production costs.So this is why the price of aluminum alloy forging will be higher than the cost of aluminum die casting.
