Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Takeyoshi Nakamura

Nobuhiro Saito

Takeshi Sugawara

Haruo Shiina

Teruyuki Ohtani

Kazuo Kikawa

Kiyonobu Mizoue

Takashi Idegomori

Masao Ichikawa

Akimasa Daimaru

Tatsuya Suzuki

Tohru Ohta

Hideyuki Fujishiro

Hisayoshi Harada

Hirotaka Koshitani

Teruo Hoshino

Yoshiyuki Fujikawa

Ryuichi Kubota

An ingot I made of a light alloy is produced using a continuous casting apparatus including a cylindrical water-cooled casting mold which is disposed immediately below a spout having an upward-turned molten metal receiving port and a downward-turned molten metal outlet, and which has an inside radius rlarger than an inside radius rof the molten metal outlet, and lubricating oil discharge passages provided below the spout to supply a lubricating oil to between the water-cooled casting moldand a molten metal m brought into contact with the water-cooled casting mold. In this production, a lubricating oil having a vaporization rate of 30% or more at 300&#xb0; is used, and an annular gas accumulation for spacing the molten metal apart from outlets of the lubricating oil discharge passages is defined below an annular protrusion of the spout by vaporization of the lubricating oil. Thus, it is possible to avoid the generation of a casting skin failure in a light alloy ingot due to the outlets of the lubricating oil discharge passages.

Process for continuously casting light alloy and apparatus for continuously casting light alloy

When a continuous casting is carried out while applying an electromagnetic agitating force to a molten metal of an aluminum alloy composition, the molten metal of the aluminum alloy composition has an Fe content in a range of 0.75% by weight &lE;Fe<2% by weight. Thus, a hard Fe-based intermetallic compound can be crystallized as a primary crystallized product, and an acicular intermetallic compound can be pulverized and finely divided by cooperation of the hard Fe-based intermetallic compound with the electromagnetic agitating force.

Agitated continuous casting process for aluminum alloy

An agitated continuous casting apparatus includes a spout having an upward-turned molten metal receiving port and a downward-turned molten metal outlet, a cylindrical water-cooled casting mold disposed immediately below the spout, and an agitator for applying an electromagnetic agitating force to the molten metal in the spout. The agitator has a function to form, in the spout, an upper area for moving the molten metal in a substantially radiate direction, and a lower area for rotating the molten metal in a circumferential direction. An upper area forming portion of an inner peripheral surface of the spout is formed into a tapered shape with its inside diameter gradually increased from its upper peripheral edge toward its lower peripheral edge. Thus, the molten metal moved in the substantially radiate direction to collide against the upper area forming portion can be moved toward the lower area, and crystallized products having a higher melting point in the molten metal can be spheroidized and collected into an outer periphery of a continuous casting material, and a shape retention effect of the crystallized products can be utilized. Therefore, the continuous casting material has a good rheologic property and an excellent shape maintaining property in its semi-molten state.

Agitated continuous casting apparatus

In carrying out of a thixocasting process, a material in a semi-molten state is produced by heating an aluminum alloy material which has a thermal characteristic that a first angled endothermic section generated by the melting of a eutectic crystal and a second angled endothermic section generated by the melting of a component having a melting point higher than an eutectic point exist in a differential calorimetric curve. A start point of a primary pressing stage is established at a point when the temperature T of the material is in a range of T.sub.1 &lt;T.ltoreq.T.sub.4 in the relationship between the temperature T.sub.1 of a rise-start point in the first angled endothermic section and the temperature T.sub.4 of a peak of the second angled endothermic section. At the primary pressing stage, the charging of the material into the cavity in a casting mold is completed. A start point of a secondary pressing stage is established at a point when the temperature T of the material is in a range of T.sub.1 &lt;T.ltoreq.T.sub.3 in the relationship between the temperature T.sub.1 of the rise-start point in the first angled endothermic section and the temperature T.sub.4 of a drop-end point in the first angled endothermic section. At the secondary pressing stage, the material is solidified.

Thixocasting process of an alloy material

In a thixocasting process, the following steps are used: a step of subjecting, to a heating treatment, an Al-Si based alloy material having a hypo eutectic crystal composition and a characteristic that a first angled endothermic section appearing due to the melting of a eutectic crystal and a second angled endothermic section appearing due to the melting of a component having a melting point higher than a eutectic point exist in a differential calorimetric curve, thereby preparing a semi-molten Al-Si based alloy material having solid and liquid phases coexisting therein; a step of pouring the semi-molten Al-Si based alloy material into a cavity in a casting mold under pressure; and a step of solidifying the semi-molten Al-Si based alloy material under pressure. When the temperature of a rise-start point in the first angled endothermic section is represented by T.sub.1, and the temperature of a drop-end point the first angled endothermic sections is represented by T.sub.2, the casting temperature T for the semi-molten Al-Si based alloy material is set in a range of T.sub.1 .ltoreq.T.ltoreq.T.sub.2. Thus, the fine precipitation of a primary crystal Si phase can be realized to provide an increase in strength of an aluminum alloy cast product.

Thixocasting process, and thixocasting aluminum alloy material

Solid and liquid phases coexist in a semi-molten casting material. A plurality of composite-solid phases having liquid and solid phase regions and a plurality of single-solid phases exist as the solid phases in a mixed state in an outer layer portion of the semi-molten casting material. If the sectional area of the solid phase region is represented by A, and the sectional area of the solid phase region is represented by B in one of the composite-solid phases, the liquid phase enclosure rate P of the composite-solid phase is defined as being represented by P={B/(A+B)}.times.100 (%). The liquid phase enclosure rate P of the single-solid phase is equal to 0 (%). When two groups are selected from a class of the solid phases, for example, by first and second straight lines so as to include a plurality of the solid phases, average values M.sub.1 and M.sub.2 of liquid phase enclosure rates of, for example, six solid phases in each of the first and second groups are represented by M.sub.1 =(P.sub.1 +P.sub.2 - - - +P.sub.5 +P.sub.6)/6 and M.sub.2 =(P.sub.7 +P.sub.8 - - - +P.sub.11 +P.sub.12)/6, and an average value M.sub.M of the average values M.sub.1 and M.sub.2 is set in a range of M.sub.M .gtoreq.20%. This inhibits the flow-out of the liquid phases from the outer layer portion in the thixocast semi-molten casting material.

Process for producing a thixocast semi-molten material

A differential thermal analysis thermograph for a thixocasting aluminum alloy material is such that, a relationship, E.sub.1 &gt;E.sub.2, is established between a peak value E.sub.1 of a first angled endothermic section generated by eutectic melting and a peak value E.sub.2 of a second angled endothermic section generated by melting of an element having a melting point higher than the eutectic point. Thus, a liquid phase produced by the eutectic melting has a large latent heat due to the fact that the peak value E.sub.1 of the first angled endothermic section is larger than the peak value E.sub.2 of the second angled endothermic section in a semi-molten eutectic aluminum alloy material derived from the thixocasting aluminum alloy material. As a result, in a solidification step of the thixocasting process, a liquid phase produced by the eutectic melting is sufficiently fed around a solid phase in response to the solidification and shrinkage of the solid phase, and then solidified. Thus, it is possible to produce a casting free from defects such as voids on the order of a micron.

Alloy material for thixocasting, process for preparing semi-molten alloy

In carrying out of a thixocasting process, a material in a semi-molten state is produced by heating an aluminum alloy material which has a thermal characteristic that a first angled endothermic section generated by the melting of a eutectic crystal and a second angled endothermic section generated by the melting of a component having a melting point higher than a eutectic point exist in a differential calorimetric curve. A start point of a primary pressing stage is established at a point when the temperature T of the material is in a range of T.sub.1 &lt;T.ltoreq.T.sub.4 in the relationship between the temperature T.sub.1 of a rise-start point in the first angled endothermic section and the temperature T.sub.4 of a peak of the second angled endothermic section. At the primary pressing stage, the charging of the material into the cavity in a casting mold is completed. A start point of a secondary pressing stage is established at a point when the temperature T of the material is in a range of T.sub.1 &lt;T.ltoreq.T.sub.3 in the relationship between the temperature T.sub.1 of the rise-start point in the first angled endothermic section and the temperature T.sub.3 of a drop-end point in the first angled endothermic section. At the secondary pressing stage, the material is solidified.

Thixocasting process, for a thixocasting alloy material

Aluminum-based alloy cast product and process for producing the same

In a process for molding a fiber molding for a fiber-reinforced composite material with short fibers oriented in one direction, a slurry molding material having short fibers dispersed in a liquid is used, and pressing forces are applied to the molding material from two directions substantially perpendicular to each other within a mold, while removing the liquid.

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Saitama, Japan

Takeyoshi Nakamura