Research On Squeeze Casting Of ZL205A Aluminum Alloy Air-Conditioner Swaying Of Automobile

In this paper, air-conditioner swaying of automobile acted as the research object produced using ZL205A alloy through squeeze casting. ProCAST software was used to simulate the influence of three process parameters, i.e. pressure, pouring temperature and mold temperature, on temperature and stress field, and predict the location of shrinkage, shrinkage cavity and thermal cracks. The accuracy of the simulation results was verified through experiment. In addition, the effect of the process parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties was examined.Numerical simulation shows that the distribution of temperature is inhomogeneous in the workpiece. Liquid metal in contact with the mold solidify first, then solidify into inside layer by layer. The existence of shrinkage and shrinkage cavity is mainly affected by pressure, but less affected by the pouring temperature. When pouring temperature is 740℃and mold temperature is 300℃, the number of shrinkages and shrinkage cavities decrease as pressure increases from 20MPa to 80MPa. When pressure is 60 MPa, the internal parts of the workpiece almost have no shrinkage and shrinkage cavity. When pressure is 100MPa and the mold temperature is 300℃, as the pouring temperature is 740℃, hot cracking tendency is the lowest. Match pressure, pouring temperature and mold temperature were passed 60MPa, 740℃and 300℃, respectively.When pressure is 60MPa and the mold temperature is 300℃, the grain size in the microstructure shows decrease at first and then increase with increasing pouring temperature. As pouring temperature is 740℃, the grain size of ZL205A alloy is the smallest and the mechanical properties is the highest. When pouring temperature is 740℃and mold temperature is 300℃, the grain size decreases from 45.5μm to 32.3μm as pressure increases from 60MPa 100MPa. Further increasing pressure decreases grain size slightly. Mechanical properties of the alloy shows the similar variation with the grain size.This experiment indicates that the best pouring temperature is 740℃, the appropriate pressure 100MPa and matched mold temperature is 300℃, which is agreement with numerical simulation results very well. Under these conditions, the surface of workpiece is smooth, the grain size is small, its distribution is homogeneous and the mechanical properties are highest. The corresponding tensile strength, yield strength and elongation were 506MPa, 477.3MPa and 12.7%, respectively, which meets the performance standard of the workpiece.