Mould Filling Ability Characterisation of SIMA Produced 6063 Alloy

Metallic materials are shaped with various methods. In last 25 years, it has been found that alloys can be shaped in the solid-liquid phase region. There are several ways to produce such materials for example magnetic stirring, mechanical stirring etc. One of them involves the heating of extruded alloy above the solidus temperature which is called Strain Induced Melt Activated (SIMA) method. Heavily cold work alloy starts to recrystallize; spherical grains form and liquid surround these grains. In this way, viscosity is decreased and the material can be shaped very easily under pressure. In this work, AA6063 extruded alloy was used to produce a (shaped sample). Different temperatures, holding times and pressures were selected to characterize the mould filling ability of the alloy. Micro structural examinations and hardness tests were carried out.