Effect of Fe and Mn contents on the castability of Al-9wt%Si-xMg-yFe-zMn alloy has been studied. The alloy was composed of ${\alpha}$-Al phase, Al+eutectic Si phase, ${\beta}$-Al5FeSi compound and chinese script ${\alpha}$-$Al_{15}(Mn,Fe)_3Si_2$ compound. ${\beta}$-$Al_5FeSi$ and ${\alpha}$-$Al_{15}(Mn,Fe)_3Si_2$ compounds assumed to effect the fluidity and shrinkage behaviors of the alloy during solidification due to the crystallization of ${\alpha}$-$Al_{15}(Fe,Mn)_3Si_2$ and ${\beta}$-$Al_5FeSi$ compounds above eutectic temperature. As Fe and Mn contents of Al-9wt%Si-0.3wt%Mg system alloy increased from 0.15wt% to 0.6wt% and from 0.3wt% to 0.7wt%, fluidity of the alloy decreased by 5.7% and 3.3%, respectively. And as Mg content of Al-9wt%Si-0.45wt%Fe-0.5wt%Mn system alloy increased from 0.3wt% to 0.4wt%, fluidity of the alloy decreased by 8.6%. When Fe content of the alloy increased from 0.15wt% to 0.6wt%, macro shrinkage ratio decreased from 6.1% to 4.1%, and micro shrinkage ratio increased from 0.04% to 0.24%. Similarly, Mn content of the alloy increased from 0.3wt% to 0.7wt%, macro shrinkage ratio decreased from 6.0% to 4.5% and micro shrinkage ratio increased from 0.12% to 0.18%. Judging from the castability of the alloy, Al-9wt%Si-0.3wt%Mg alloy with low content of Fe and Mn, 0.1wt% Fe and 0.3wt% Mn, is recommendable.

The most widely utilized commercial, aluminum-casting alloys are based on an aluminum-silicon system due to its excellent casting, and good mechanical, properties. Unfortunately, these Al-Si based alloys are inherently poor energy conductors; compared to pure aluminum, because of their high silicon content. This means that they are not suitable for applications demanding high eletrical or thermal conductivity. Therefore, efforts are currently being made to develop new, highly-conductive aluminum-casting alloys containing no silicon. In this research, a number of properties; including potential for castability, were investigated for a number of Al-Fe-Zn-Cu alloys with varying Cu content. As the copper content was increased, the tensile strength of Al-Fe-Zn-Cu alloy tended to increase gradually, while the electrical conductivity was slightly reduced. Fluidity was found to be lower in high-Cu alloys, and susceptibility to hot-cracking was generally high in all the alloys investigated.

To add alloying elements into a pure copper melt, the wire-feeding efficiency of cored (alloy containing) wire was evaluated using a commercial, computational fluid-dynamics program. The model design was based on an industrial-scale production line. The variables calculated included wire feed rate, melt temperature, wire diameter, melt flow rate and wire temperature. Efficiency was evaluated after a series of calculations based on the penetration depth of the alloy-wire into the molten copper bath. Of the five variables investigated, the wire feed rate and wire diameter were the most influential factors affecting the feeding efficiency of the cored-wire.