TITLE OF PROJECT

HEAT TREATMENT OF Al-Si-Cu CAST ALLOY

TECHNICAL REPORT

Submitted by
Name
Sachin Rana
Krishna Baktarwala
Vivek Modi
Sarat chandra Nedunuri

Student ID
104117857
104340057
104337941
104334656

Under Guidance of
Dr. Jerry H. Sokolowski
Subject: Metal Casting Technology (06-89-512-01)

University of Windsor
Windsor, Canada.
April, 2015

Summary
This report details the heat treatment of Al-Si-Cu alloy and various process parameters.
Emphasis has been given to T6 heat treatment technique which is particularly used for
aluminum cast alloys of sand and gravity die casting. Various steps involved in solution
heat treatment are discussed concisely. A brief discussion has been made about
alternate heat treatment sources and optimization of solution heat treatment. Paper
review has been done on addition of Mg and Sr and their subsequent effect on
mechanical properties of the A319 alloy after subject to artificial ageing. These changes
in properties have been concisely reported and suitable observations have been made.
Second paper review has been done on changes in microstructure and mechanical
properties of Al-Si 319 alloy after addition of S and Sb.

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Introduction
Today, the automotive and aerospace industries rely strongly on the aluminum products
and want them to be stronger, reliable, economical, comfortable and ecological. This
trend has led to the sound casting techniques of aluminum alloys and their properties
are observed to be modified due to their heat treatability by addition of Si, Mg and other
elements. 3xx series of aluminum is found to be most widely heat treat and a lot of
publications have been made on the heat treatment of Al-Si-Cu/Mg alloy. Subsequent
changes in mechanical properties such as tensile strength and hardness have been
recorded well in many journals and papers.

Though heat treatment has its own unique advantages, many challenges are being
faced today by manufacturers for higher performance due to increased competition,
higher energy costs and increasing ecological issues. Age hardening depends upon
various factors fraction size, coherency of precipitates formed and proper distribution of
particles. Mechanical properties enhanced after the heat treatment depend on
solidification rate, microstructure, temperature, quenching rate, impurities added and
other controlling parameters. Al-Si-Cu-Mg alloys and Al-Si-Mg alloys generally have a
high age hardening response, while Al-Si-Cu alloys have a slow and low age hardening
response [1].

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Aim
Main objective of this paper is to understand heat treatment process employed for Al-SiCu cast alloys with prime emphasis on T6 heat treatment and various controlling
parameters. Changes in microstructure and mechanical properties of the cast alloys
after heat treating and addition of impurities have been studied.

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T6 heat treatment technique:

The T6 heat treatment technique is normally applied to sand and gravity die casting to
increase the strength of cast Al-Si components containing Cu and/or Mg. It involves
following stages [2]:
1. Solution heat treatment: Solution treatment is carried out at a high temperature
and main objective is to dissolve Cu- and Mg- rich particles formed during the
solidification of casting to form a homogenous solid solution of the particles
present in alloy.
2. Quenching: It is carried out at room temperature to obtain the supersaturated
solid solution of vacancies and solute atoms.
3. Age hardening: This process is carried out to obtain the precipitates from the
supersaturated solution. It may be carried out at a controlled elevated
temperature (Artificial ageing) or at room temperature (Natural ageing). The T6
heat treatment is illustrated in figure 1.

Figure 1. The T6 heat treatment process [3]

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 As-cast condition:
This is the condition of the metal just after the casting process and no further treatment
has been done to modify physical/mechanical properties of the element. This condition
has been studied extensively by Samuel [4], Djurdjevic [5] and Li [6]. Al2Cu is normally
present in different form in the as cast condition as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2 (a) Eutectic Al2Cu (b) blocky Al2cu [7]

Solution heat treatment:
It is carried out at a high temperature, close to the eutectic temperature for a sufficient
length of time and main objectives [8] of this process are as given:
1. Dissolve particles formed during solidification containing Cu and Mg.
2. Homogenize the alloying elements in the matrix
3. Change of the morphology the eutectic Si particles.
As the solution treatment temperature increases, the rate of above mentioned process
and strength increases. Strength increases because the solubility of the solute atoms in
the solution increases. However, very high temperature causes the localized melting of
Cu; incipient melting of phases which leads to distortion and gradual loss in mechanical
properties [9]. Cu containing phases start to melt at 519 C in an A319 alloy with low-Mg

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concentration [10]. Optimization of solution treatment is necessary because too long

solution treatment will result in excess of energy loss and too short treatment will result
in improper dissolution of solute particles.

Alternate Heat treatment source:

Fluidized bed (FBs) heat treatment [11] rate is found to be much greater than
conventional source of heat treatment such as electrical resistance furnaces (CFs), salt
baths, air chamber furnaces, induction heaters, and infrared heating. This high rate
results in an increased Si fragmentation and spheroidisation during solution heat
treatment as well as high precipitation rate of phases like Al 5Cu2Mg8Si6 and Al2Cu
during ageing. The total time taken for heat treatment for T6 temper is found be less
than 2 hours employing FB heat treatment technique as well as much lesser
consumption of energy [11]. Thereby, it reduces heat cycle time and is found to be
environmentally friendly [12]. Figure 3 shows the microstructure of the Al-Si-Mg-Cu (319
alloy) before and after T6 heat temper using fluidized bed.

Figure 3. Typical microstructure of Al-Si-Mg-Cu (319

alloy); as-cast (a) and solution heat treated for 15
minutes at 493C using fluidized bed (b) [12].

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 Post solution treatment

Dissolution of the blocky Al2Cu and the eutectic Al2Cu has been studied [13, 7, 14] and
takes place in different manner in the solution treatment. Dissolution of the eutectic
Al2Cu is somewhat simple as compared to the blocky Al2Cu. The eutectic Al2cu first
undergoes fragmentation and it then undergoes spheroidisation. Finally it undergoes
radial diffusion of Cu in the matrix as shown in fig 4. Whereas, the blocky Al2Cu does
not undergo fragmentation and is dissolved by spheroidisation and diffusion; thus taking
a longer time.

Figure 4. Dissolution process of (a) eutectic Al2Cu (b) Blocky Al2Cu particles [15]
Two-step solution treatment:
This is an innovative process also known as conventional solution treatment by
Sokolowski [16, 17] for optimization of the solution treatment process. In this process
alloy is first heated at a low temperature of 495 degree C for 8h to dissolve Cu
containing phases and then it is treated at a high temperature of 520 degree C for 2h to
obtain homogenous solution. This resulted in improved mechanical properties by the
reduced amount of copper rich phase in 319 alloy giving increased strength and
ductility. Holding time for the first process and subsequently second process play a vital
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role in overall success of this treatment. Observations showed this treatment gave
optimum results as compared to the conventional method of treating at 495 degree
C/8h.

Quenching:
It is the next important step after Solution heat treatment and its prime objective is to get
the maximum precipitation hardening elements to form a supersaturated solution and to
trap maximum vacancies with lattice atoms [18, 19]. Controlling the temperature is too
critical for success of the Quenching process because very high temperature leads to
faster diffusion and lower super-saturation and vice-versa for lower temperature. The
temperature range between 450 degree C and 200 degree C is found to be the most
critical for Al-Si cast alloys. Hence the time spent between these intervals should be as
low as possible to avoid the precipitation. Rapid quenching results in the best
combination of strength and ductility and the criticality of the process depends upon the
quench media and quench interval.

Ageing:
Main objective of this process is to obtain the uniform distribution of the precipitates in
order to gain maximum strength of the elements. Depending upon the application,
ageing can be of two types: (a) Natural ageing (room temperature) and (b) Artificial
ageing (Elevated temperature of around 150-210 degree C).

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 Artificial ageing:
Precipitation sequence of Al-Si-Cu alloy (319 alloys) is generally described by the
formation of Al2Cu precipitates. The precipitation sequence is describes as follows [2022]: ss GP Zones (Al2Cu).

Figure 5 Mechanical properties of the AlSiCu alloy. Yield strength (open symbols)
and UTS (solid symbols) at a) 170 C and b) 210 C [9].

Figure 5 shows the ageing curves for Al-Si-Cu alloy for coarseness of three different
microstructures which are found to be more or less same but the yield strength of the
coarsest microstructure is least. Complete dissolution and homogenization for the
coarsest microstructure takes place at heat treatment of 6h and 495 degree C. Lower
yield strength after artificial ageing is found to be due to lower content of Cu in solid
solution after solution treatment [9].

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PAPER REVIEW 1
Effect of Mg and Sr- modification on the mechanical Properties of Al 319
subjected to artificial aging [23]

Aluminum-based 319-type cast alloys are commonly used in the automotive industry
to manufacture cylinder heads and engine blocks. These applications require good
mechanical properties and in order to achieve them through precipitation hardening,
artificial aging treatments are applied to the products.

Interestingly the Strontium ( Sr) modified Al 319 alloy containing 0.4 wt% Magnesium
(Mg) (i.e alloy 319 + Mg + Sr) when undergone aging heat treatments to different
temperatures and for different hours of time, it was found that mechanical properties
like micro-hardness, ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and impact properties
have given their best combination at a particular temperature and time.

The different chemical compositions of Al 319 alloy used for performing artificial
aging heat treatment at different temperatures for different hours of time were as in
the below table 2:

Alloy Code

Element (wt % )
Si

Cu

Fe

Mg

Mn

Zn

Ti

Sr

319

6.15

3.53

0.09

0.05

0.001

0.008

0.15

0.0001

319+Sr

6.21

3.55

0.11

0.06

0.001

0.007

0.13

0.020

319+Mg

6.18

3.58

0.1

0.41

0.001

0.008

0.16

0.0001

319+Mg+Sr 6.17

3.57

0.09

0.43

0.001

0.008

0.16

0.020

Table 2. Chemical compositions of Al 319 alloy

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In the case of Sr added Al 319 alloy, it was observed that properties like elongation
(El) and total absorbed impact energy (Et) were improved after artificial aging. This
phenomenon is to be expected, since these properties depend to a great extent on
the morphology and distribution of brittle phases, which are responsible for the
fracture in this type of material. Therefore, modifying the eutectic silicon phase will
improve the ductility and impact toughness of the alloy.

In the case of Mg added Al 319 alloy, the strength properties and micro hardness
were improved drastically but the elongation and impact energy properties were
decreased. It is noted that these values tend to be lower than those obtained with
the base alloy since additions of Mg will increase strength and hardness at the
expense of reduced ductility.

The summarized table for all the four cases with its highest properties after the
specified artificial aging treatment is as below table 3 :

Alloy

319

319 + Sr

319 + Mg

319 + Mg+ Sr

UTS (MPa)

376

376

428

423

YS (MPa)

258

8h@170C 230

4h@150C 403

8h@170C 398

VHN

110

86.5

134

133

% El

8.4

4h@150C 8.9

4h@170C 2.8

4h@150C 4.43

2h@150C

Et(J)

20

24

4h@150C 7.9

2h@150C 13.4

4h@150C

8h@170C

Table 3. Summarized table for all the four cases

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Industrially, 319-type alloys are used in the manufacture of automotive engine blocks
and cylinder heads where the demand for mechanical properties state that desirable
values range from 250MPa to 300MPa for yield and ultimate tensile strength, 1% for
elongation, 10 J for impact toughness and 100 VHN for micro hardness. It is
prominent from table 2 that alloy 319 +Mg + Sr can afford high tensile strength and
micro hardness values through heat treatment and the process of Sr-modification
enhances its ductility and impact toughness, this is what it makes for having the best
combination of mechanical properties.

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PAPER REVIEW 2
Effects of S & Sb additions on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of
the Al-Si 319 alloy [24]

The simultaneous addition of Sulphur and antimony shows there effect on the
microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al-Si 319 alloy, containing high
levels of iron and manganese. It was noted that Sulphur and antimony act
independently to increase the mechanical properties of Al 319 alloy.

The Sulphur influences the shape and distribution of the Al 15(Fe,Mn) 3Si2 phase,
promoting its occurrence as dendritic Chinese script-like morphology. On the other
hand, antimony additions help in the formation of a lamellar eutectic structure in AlSi eutectic phase. As a result of these changes in microstructure, an improvement in
the values of ultimate tensile strength, elongation to failure and hardness was
observed with respect to those shown by the untreated 319 alloy.

Figure 6 Microstructure of a 319 Al-Si alloy in its reference untreated condition

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The addition of Sulphur and antimony with different proportions was made to the
liquid metal of 319 Al- Si alloy. It was found that at 0.04 wt % of Sulphur dendritic
Chinese script-like morphology was achieved and at 0.30 wt% of Sb, 0.01 wt % of S
the desired lamellar eutectic structure was achieved as shown in the below figures
respectively.

Figure 7. Microstructure of sulphur treated 319 Al-Si alloy with 0.04 wt% S
concentration

Figure 8. Microstructure 319 Al-Si alloy with the addition of 0.30 wt% Sb, 0.01 wt% S.

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The addition of Sulphur and antimony promotes microstructural changes in AI-Si 319
alloys, and the two elements act independent of one another.

The effect of Sulphur on microstructure may be due to its strong surface active
nature. On the other hand, the effect of antimony on the modification of the Si
morphology may be related to a change in the Si growth mode.

The microstructural modification of the iron-rich intermetallic and the Si eutectic

brings about improvements in the mechanical properties of the alloy, especially in
regard to its ductility.

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Conclusion
T6 heat treatment process is the most popular and widely used technique for
enhancement of the mechanical and physical properties of the cast aluminum alloys.
Several aspects have to be kept in mind and overall heat treatment process parameters
are to be looked for overall success of the cast product and subsequent enhancement
in properties instead of focusing on only solution treatment or age hardening. Prior
modeling of the microstructure using commercial software can be beneficial in deciding
subsequent processes.

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References
[1] A.M.A. Mohamed and F.H. Samuel. A Review on the Heat Treatment of Al-SiCu/Mg Casting Alloys.
[2] Hatch JE, editor. Aluminum: properties and physical metallurgy. Metals Park (OH,
USA): ASM International; 1984. p. 1367.
[3] Sundman B., Jansson B., Andersson J.O. Calphad 9, 1985; 153-190.
[4] Samuel, E.H., Samuel, A.M., Doty, H.W., 1996b. Factors controlling the type and
morphology of Cu-containing phases in 319 Al alloy. AFS Trans. 30,

893901.

[5] Djurdjevic, M., Stockwell, T., Sokolowski, J., 1999. The effect of strontium on the
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[10] Samuel, F.H., 1998. Incipient melting of Al5Mg8Si6Cu2 and Al2Cu intermetallics in
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