Optimisation of Aluminium Alloys in a Recycling Context

The primary goal of this pre-project is to prepare and make a proposal for a main BILAT project, probably a KMB, within Optimisation of Aluminium Alloys in a Recycling Context. We have managed to establish a very qualified consortium, including Toyama Uni versity in Japan, with high expertise in the field of aluminium alloys, which together with NTNU and SINTEF, will contribute to help Hydro increasing the quality and reduce the energy consumption in their future Aluminium products. A more profound unders tanding and insight into alloy development on a fundamental level, will make the industry better in predicting properties in the future. The present project will contribute in developing new recycling friendly alloys with properties equal or better as com pared to alloys produced from primary sources (electrolysis). In the planning period, the consortium has to agree on a few ideas to follow up further. Many challenges are found in the field of optimisation of alloy chemistries of products based on recyc ling sources. Three of these are: 1.) Influence of impurity elements on nano-precipitates and mechanical properties. When recycling aluminium, many types of elements can be found in the melt, which affects the precipitation sequence. From lacquer etc, o ften lighter elements (for example carbon and oxygen) will remain. These light elements can now be studied more easily in the TEM. 2.) Surface treatments of Al alloys for changing precipitation behaviour. One idea can be to introduce elements in a surface to modify surface properties. The layered nanostructure will then give other properties in the bulk compared to the surface, from layered precipitation. 3.)Nanostructure modification in Al-Mg-Si alloys by introduction of new elements. As known, the nano sized precipitates alter depending on the composition of the alloy. By adding new elements, the properties may change. A collaboration with Toyama has already started with Ag additions.