Mixed alloy chip extrusion

The aim of the investigation is to characterize the behaviour of billets composed of different aluminium alloys chips, shape and size. The billets were processed by plastic deformation in order to obtain useful parameters to make final products with good aesthetic-structural characteristics. This is made possible by direct recycle of chips with plastic deformation processes, in specific with a chip-based hot extrusion process. This technique is very interesting at an industrial level where the chips coming from various aluminium alloy machining procedures are accumulated together. The classic secondary aluminium production process by re-melting already saves 95% of energy in comparison to primary aluminium production from mineral (Bauxite). As previously shown from researches on Chip Extrusion, there is a higher energy saving through direct extrusion of chips and scraps pre-compacted in chip-based billets without re-melting. The research has the objective of testing the optimal combination of process parameters for different mixes of alloys in order to obtain the desired profiles; at the same time a FEM (Finite Element Method) simulation is implemented with HyperExtrude and MatLab software. The code is expected to describe processes with different parameters and give results similar to the experimental ones.