REHEATING TEMPERATURE CONTRAST AND MICROSTRUCTURES OF 7075 Al ALLOY CAST BY LIQUIDUS SEMI-CONTINUOUS CASTING

In this study, reheating of liquidus semi-continuous cast billets of 7075 Al alloy was carried out in a resistance furnace, and the temperature contrast of the outer and the center of the reheated billets was investigated, then the reheating microstructures were investigated. Results show that: the difference of temperature between the outer and center is small and the difference of their microstructures are also small. During reheating at 576℃ the spheroidization of grains is significant after 5min and no rosettes are visible after 20min by optical microscopy. Similar observations were madeon materials reheated at 596℃, but the ripening process is faster. The grains growup to 30-60μm, fine enough for thixoforming.