A single forming equipment of bimetal continuous core-filling casting was designed and manufactured for the purpose of developing copper-aluminum composite materials.The characteristics of the equipment were as follows:the crystallizer composed of water jacket copper sleeve in which graphite sleeve was set, two melting furnaces with different diameters vertically distributed, the low furnace of melting copper linked with the crystallizer, continuous casting and core-filling proceeded at the meantime.The rational processing parameters were determined through a series of experiments:contact length from down crucible to water-cooling cupreous crystallizer, 20 mm;length of recooling spray jet under crystallizer, 95 mm;temperature of copper and aluminum, 1250-1320℃ and 700℃ respectively;pulling rate, 16 mm/min.The qualified copper-clad aluminum composite rods, the external and inner diameter of which was 40 mm and 24 mm respectively, could be drawn successfully on that basis.Tested by hydrostatic extrusion and drawing process, the boss ratios of the copperclad aluminum composite rods were maintained a relatively stable scope of about 0.59-0.65, which was not obviously changed by subsequent plastic processing.
The steady-state temperature field of horizontal core-filling continuous casting (HCFC) for producing copper cladding aluminum rods was simulated by finite element method to investigate the effects of key processing parameters on the positions of solid-liquid interfaces (SLIs) of copper and aluminum. It is found that mandrel tube length and mean withdrawing speed have significant effects on the SLI positions of both copper and aluminum. Aluminum casting temperature (TAl) (1003-1123 K) and secondary cooling water flux (600-900 L·h-1) have little effect on the SLI of copper but cause the SLI of aluminum to move 2-4 mm. When TAl is in a range of 1043-1123 K, the liquid aluminum can fill continuously into the pre-solidified copper tube. Based on the numerical simulation, reasonable processing parameters were determined.
