Electromagnetic Continuous Casting Process for Near Net Shape Aluminum Alloy Billet

A new method and apparatus for the fabrication of high-quality, near net shaped aluminum alloy billets is developed by the combination of continuous casting and electromagnetic casting/stirring technique. Traditional machine for continuous casting process involves round, square and rectangular billets; therefore it requires additional multistep forging process to fabricate final products of complicated shape. A new process for the fabrication of near net shaped aluminum billets offers some advantages: the process of extrusion and forging is simplified and the cost of plastic working can be greatly reduced. In order to reduce the peculiar problems such as surface crack and internal defect due to inhomogeneous heat transfer of solidified billets, electromagnetic casting and stirring technique were adopted. The effect of electromagnetic field was compared by observing the microstructure of billets. Grain refinement of aluminum billet was clearly observed by applying electromagnetic field to continuous casting process.