Mold-filling ability of semisolid alloy

The mold-filling ability of the semisolid alloy has very important effects on the quality and properties of the work pieces produced by the semisolid forming process. The factorial experiments show that all of the heating factors, such as mold temperature, heating temperature and the keeping time of billets, have some effects on the mold-filling ability of semisolid alloy. According to the analysis of influencing extent on the filling ability, it is found that the most important one of the factors is the mold temperature instead of the billets temperature, the next one is the heating temperature of the billet, and the keeping time rows on the third. It is also found that there is an interrelation between the billet heating temperature and the mold temperature. The effect of the interrelation on the mold-filling abilityis even stronger than the keeping time. The higher the mold temperature, heating temperature or the keeping time is, the better the mold-filling ability of the semisolid alloy is. The parameter to describe themold-filling ability, defined as the maximum filling height along theupright direction or the maximum filling length along the horizontal direction, can be theoretically determined according to the flowing theory of viscous fluid.