Experimental Study and Simulation of the Effect of Temperature in Thixoforging Process, Case Study: Producing of the 62 Model Helical Gearbox Cap

Semi-solid metal (SSM) processing has been used to produce of the engineering components with the suitable proper-ties and at the closet form of the final part. Thixoforging is one of SSM processes that in this process the forming opera-tion is performed on materials with the solid fraction of less than 55%. The purpose of this paper is to discuss on the temperature (mold and specimen temperature and holding time) for the producing of a relatively complex piece. The characteristics of the microstructures and mechanical properties of thixoforged Al-A356 alloy were studied. For this aim, some experimental tests were done. Also the results of these tests are compared with the results of simulations. The results showed that by increasing mold temperature, causes more inhomogeneous microstructure and therefore the hardness and forming force decreased %12.5 and %20.6 respectively. Also the results showed that increasing the spec-imen temperature and holding time, the grain size of primary α–al phase increased. For example in holding time of 5 min, by increasing the temperature from 570°C to 600°C, the grain size of primary α–al increased 3.5 percent. Also in the temperature from 570°C, by increasing holding time of 5 min to 30 min, the grain size of primary α–al increased 73.9 percent. In this work, the T6 heat treatment process was used for improving the hardness. The hardness was in-creased %17.3, because of changing in primary α–al phase and produced the homogeneous microstructure.