Investigating the Potential of Secondary Aluminum Cast Alloys Used as Wrought Alloys

AluminumAluminum is by far the most produced non-ferrous metal. About one third of the annual aluminumAluminum production is generated by recyclingRecycling scrap. A stare scheme of alloyAlloys classifications, the difficult removal of foreign elements, and economic constraints in scrap sorting make the way of downcycling favorable. The product in this case is a secondary cast alloyAlloys. The main field of application for these alloysAlloys is in the internal combustionCombustion engine. The global trends toward electric vehicles will potentially shrink the demand for those alloysAlloys with a highly specificized field of application. Future scrapping of gasoline or diesel-powered end-of-life-vehicles (ELV) may lead to a surplus of scraps that cannot be recycled in a proper way as they already contain high amounts of foreign elements. This work investigates the direct potential of the two secondary cast alloysAlloys, EN-AC-46000 and EN-AC-46200. Both alloysAlloys were produced on laboratory scale, for their use as wroughtWrought alloysAlloys. The alloysAlloys were heat treated and successfully rolled to sheets. Tensile tests were performed in solution-annealed and artificial-aged condition. The results show an interesting combination of mechanical propertiesMechanical properties that may trigger further investigations towards an application of these alloysAlloys as sheet material.