Increasing the Abrasion Resistance of Aluminum Foundry Alloys AL-SI AK9 and AK12 Plasma-electrolytic Treatment

Abstract

Aluminum casting alloys are used in machine-building, automobile, aviation, electrical and textile enterprises. However, aluminum alloys have low abrasive wear resistance, which significantly hinders their use in technological environments where abrasive particles are present. However, aluminum alloys have low abrasive wear resistance, which significantly hinders their use in technological environments where abrasive particles are present. The method of plasma electrolytic oxidation of plasma electrolyte treatment on aluminum alloys provides high hardness up to 2000 HV, low friction coefficient, high adhesion to the metal base, high environmental friendliness. However, this method does not allow the synthesis of oxide layers with high abrasive wear resistance on cast alloys - silumin. Plasma electrolyte treatment layers synthesized on the most widely used Al-Si foundry alloys have significant disadvantages: low rate of synthesis of the oxoceramic layer - 0.5 - 1 μm / min., Low thickness - up to 140 μm, low microhardness (700-1000 HV) and low abrasion resistance. Plasma electrolyte treatment layers were synthesized on the surface of 30x30 mm plates with a thickness of 4 mm from aluminum casting alloys AK-9 (9% Si) and AK-12 (12% Si) in electrolyte - 3 g / l KOH + 2 g / l Na2SiO3 (aqueous solution of liquid glass) without and with the addition to the electrolyte of 3 g / l of hydrogen peroxide H2O2, pulsed current at a frequency of 50 Hz in the cathode-anode mode at a ratio of currents (Ik / Ia) = 1 and a current density of 20 A / dm2. The thickness of the coatings after synthesis for 120 min was 120 -130 µm .. [4]. Metallographic studies were performed on a scanning electron microscope ZEISS EVO 40XVP with X-ray microanalysis system INCA Energy. The phase composition of the surface layers was investigated using a DRON-3M diffractometer in Cu-K radiation. Conclusions: 1. Plasma-electrolyte treatment of silumins AK-9 and AK-12 increases their microhardness up to 1000… 1300 HV, which causes an increase in their abrasive wear resistance by 14 ... 57 times. 2. Addition to the electrolyte of hydrogen peroxide H2O2 in the amount of 3% of the mass. increases the abrasive wear resistance of silumins after plasma electrolyte treatment by another 30 ... 70%. This is due to the increase in the content of oxide phases αAl2O3, γAl2O3 and the decrease in the content of the silicate phase of sillimanite - Al2O3 • SiO2 in the coating structure.