The use of secondary aluminium is increasingly being promoted in the automotive industry for environmental reasons. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that it is possible to obtain a recycled AlSi10MnMg(Fe) aluminium alloy with equal metallurgical quality to that of a primary AlSi10MnMg alloy when an adequate melt treatment is applied. The melt treatment consisted of deoxidation, degassing and skimming in accordance with the detailed procedure described in this article. The metallurgical qualities of one primary and two secondary alloys were assessed using thermal analysis, the density index test, the macroinclusion test and the microinclusion level test before and after melt treatment. The thermal analysis allowed us to compare the variables of the solidification cooling curve (Al primary temperature and its undercooling; Al-Si eutectic temperature and its predictive modification rate). The density index test was used to evaluate the hydrogen gas content in the melt. The macroinclusion test was used to evaluate the melt cleanliness, while the microinclusion level test was used to perform the inclusion identification and quantification analyses. This study showed the feasibility of manufacturing structural components using 100% recycled secondary aluminium alloy through V-HPDC technology.

Near solidus forming (NSF) of steels is a novel process under the umbrella of semi-solid forming technologies midway between classical hot forging and semi-solid technologies. This article presents the work done at Mondragon Unibertsitatea to develop this technology and demonstrates the great potential of the NSF process. The study proves the capability of the process to reduce raw material consumption by 20%, reduce forming loads from 2100 t to 300 t, and reduce forming steps from three to one, to obtain as-forged mechanical properties, as well as the excellent repeatability of the process. The work demonstrates that manufacturing commercial steel components in a single step using several off-the-shelf alloys is possible thanks to the flowing pattern of the material, which enables near-net shaping. In the first part of the article, a general overview of the semi-automated near solidus forming cell, together with a description of the NSF manufacturing trials, is provided, followed by the presentation and discussion of the results for the selected steel alloys.

The benefits of the novel Near Solidus Forming (NSF) process has shown previously in its ability to produce steel components with comparable as-forged mechanical properties but with a cost reduction of 10–15%. This study further pushes the NSF technology to produce parts that are conventionally difficult to produce via conventional methods. A 2.7 kg 42CrMo4 steel grade component was manufactured into a complex geometry using only a 400t press. Different manufacturing parameters were evaluated to show their influence on the process and final component. A combination of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), optical microscopy and SEM analysis of the microstructure was also conducted revealing the deformation pattern of the material and shedding some light on how the material evolves during the process. The successful forging of these components shows the capability to produce previously deemed difficult geometries, with much a lower specification forging press, in a single deformation.

Reduction of production costs is the aim of many companies in order to become more competitive. In this field, one of the so called ‘near net shape’ processes, the semisolid metal forming (SSF), has revealed a high potential in terms of raw material and energetic savings. The lack of materials that result in good mechanical properties after SSF makes it difficult to implement this technology into the industry. This fact requires further thixoformability investigations on different steels to be overcome. Therefore, this research work, which is the continuation of [1], focuses on analyzing the thixoformability of the commercially available 42CrMo4E steel grade by thixoforging of an automotive spindle. Microstructure and mechanical properties evaluation has been as well carried-out to conclude, first, the impossibility of estimating by quenching and quantitative metallography analysis the liquid fraction of 42CrMo4E, and second, the great accordance of the mechanical properties of SSF component with the requirements of hot forged part.

Steel production and component manufacturing industries have to face the challenge of globalization, trying to overcome the economic pressure to remain competitive. Moreover, the lightweighting trend of the latter years implies an even higher challenge to maintain the steel use. Therefore, advanced manufacturing processes will be the cornerstone. In this field, Semisolid forming (SSF) has demonstrated the capability of obtaining complex geometries and saving raw material and energy. Despite it is complicated the SSF of sound components, in Mondragon Unibertsitatea it has been successfully demonstrated the capability of producing strong enough automotive components with 42CrMo4 steel grade. In this work, we demonstrate the capability of SSF S48C steel grade with great mechanical properties.