Investigating Formation of Intermetallics in Compound Casting of Al/Cu Bimetals

The purpose of this article is to study the formation of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) at the interface of Al/Cu bimetal produced by compound casting of molten Al in solid copper tubes. The mechanism of the intermetallic compounds formations at the interface, the effects of molten aluminum pouring temperature and solid copper tubes preheating tempreture, were investigated on the IMCs type and thickness and Al/Cu interface microstructures were characterized by optical microscope (OM) and electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA). Results show that the interface consists of three main layers, where Layer (I) is α-Al/Al2Cu eutectic structure, layer (II) is intermetal of Al2Cu and layer (III) constituites several intermetallic compounds such as AlCu, Al3Cu4, Al2Cu3 and Al4Cu9. Considering the components of hypereutectic melt at the interface, initially layer (II) was formed by θ phase nucleation and growth mechanism, then layer (I) was formed by Al and Cu dissolving and solidification. Finally layer (III) was formed by solid-state phase diffusion. Raising molten Al temperature and preheating solid Cu leads to increase of the intermetallic compounds thickness at interface which consequently increases the specific electrical resistance and decreases the Al/Cu bond strength. From experimental results it seems that the bond strength is affected by the thicknesses of layer II and III.