Aluminium-Matrix-Composites (AMC) for Hot Forged Components

The development of new materials or material systems is always accompanied by the development of processing technologies suitable for the material. The reduction of process steps, the saving of material and the optimization of material properties are aims of forming processes. The basis for this is the comprehensive characterisation of the thermos-physical and thermos-mechanical technologically relevant material behaviour, taking into account the real process conditions. In the present work, the material-specific process limits were determined by means of experimental simulation and used in the numerical simulation in order, on the one hand, to identify the forming steps for optimizing the manufacturing conditions and, on the other hand, to be able to set the final material properties. It was essential to homogenize the casting microstructure for the forming processes and to adjust it to globulitical grains by solution annealing. The previously limited forming behaviour of the cast AlSi9Mg alloy with 20 vol.-% SiC could be increased thus to forging-relevant plastic strains without occurring damages. Based on the comprehensive temperature-dependent material data, a one-step and resource-efficient manufacturing process for AMC materials by hot forming could be developed with the help of the FE software Simufact Forming and validated in reality under near-industrial conditions.