The gas porosity is one of the most serious problems in the casting of aluminum. There are several degassing methods that have been

studied. During smelting of aluminum, the intermetallic compound (IMC) may be formed at the interface between molten aluminum and

solid steel of crucible furnace lining. In this study, the effect of degassing treatment on the formations of IMC has been investigated. The

rectangular substrate specimens were immersed in a molten aluminum bath. The holding times of the substrate immersions were in the

range from 300 s to 1500 s. Two degassing treatments, argon degassing and hexachloroethane tablet degassing, were conducted to

investigate their effect on the IMC formation. The IMC was examined under scanning electron microscope with EDX attachment. The

thickness of the IMC layer increased with increasing immersion time for all treatments. Due to the high content of hydrogen, substrate

specimens immersed in molten aluminum without degasser had IMC layer which was thicker than others. Argon degassing treatment was

more effective than tablet degassing to reduce the IMC growth. Furthermore, the hard and brittle phase of IMC, FeAl3, was formed

dominantly in specimens immersed for 900 s without degasser while in argon and tablet degasser specimens, it was formed partially.

Dissimilar Al/Ti alloy sheets were lap welded with ultrasonic assistance in this work. The influence of ultrasonic vibration on formation, intermetallic compounds (IMCs) and tensile failure load of the obtained joints was discussed. The results showed that voids formed at the lap interface without ultrasonic assistance. No voids can be observed on the joint welded with ultrasonic because the vibration during welding improved the material flow. No obvious IMC formed at the Al/Ti bonding interface of the joint welded without ultrasonic assistance. An IMC layer formed at the bonding interface of Al/Ti with ultrasonic assistance and its thickness increased with decreasing the welding speed. The failure load of the joint welded with ultrasonic assistance was higher than the joint without ultrasonic because the void was eliminated and the thin IMC layer formed at the bonding interface was beneficial to joint strength. All joints presented shear failure mode during the tensile shear tests.

This paper aims to investigate the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of hot-deformed AlMg4 alloys with Mn, Fe, and Si as the main impurities. For this purpose, solidification behavior and microstructural evolution during hot-rolling and heat-treatment processes are investigated by using theoretical calculations and experimental characterization. The crystallization and morphological transformation of intermetallic Al3Fe, Al6Mn, and Mg2Si phases are revealed and discussed in terms of the variation in chemical composition. Following a homogenization heat-treatment, the effect of heat treatment on the intermetallic compounds is also investigated after hot-rolling. It was revealed that the Mg2Si phase can be broken into small particles and spherodized more easily than the Al3Fe intermetallic phase during the hot-rolling process. For the Mn containing alloys, both yield and ultimate tensile strength of the hot-rolled alloys increased from 270 to 296 MPa while elongation decreased from 17 to 13%, which can be attributed to Mn-containing intermetallic as well as dispersoid.

In this research, we investigated the effects of reduction atmospheres on the creation of the Mo-Si-B intermetallic compounds (IMC) during the heat treatments. For outstanding anti-oxidation and elevated mechanical strength at the ultrahigh temperature, we fabricated the uniformly dispersed IMC powders such as Mo5SiB2 (T2) and Mo3Si (A15) phases using the two steps of chemical reactions. Especially, in the second procedure, we studied the influence of the atmospheres (e.g. vacuum, argon, and hydrogen) on the synthesis of IMCs during the reduction. Furthermore, the newly produced IMCs were observed by SEM, XRD, and EDS to identify the phase of the compounds. We also calculated an amount of IMCs in the reduced powders depending on the atmosphere using the Reitveld refinement method. Consequently, it is found that hydrogen atmosphere was suitable for fabrication of IMC without other IMC phases.

Fusion welding of Ti-Cu is difficult because of big difference of melting points and formation of brittle intermetallic compounds. Friction stir welding is carried out by solid-state joining, thermo-mechanical stirring, and friction heat. Ti-Cu FSW dissimilar welding can supply a very sound joint area with a few intermetallic compounds. Optimized welding process conditions are essential to obtain suitable microstructure and mechanical properties of welded zones. Different welding speeds affect the evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties due to changes of input heat and internal stored deformation energy. The correlation of microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-Cu welded zone according to welding speeds were investigated and analyzed. As the higher the welding speed, the lower the heat input and the lower the temperature rise. Ti-Cu 75 has the smallest grain size at 13.9 μm, but the optimum mechanical properties and the integrity of welding were shown in Ti-Cu 50.