• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.113-121
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• 2013

The effects of Zn and Mg amounts on the solidification characteristics, microstructure, thermal conductivity and tensile strength of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys were investigated for the development of high thermal conductivity aluminium alloys for die casting. Zn and Mg amounts in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys had a little effect on the liquidus / solidus temperature, the latent heat for solidification and the fluidity of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys. Thermo-physical modelling of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys by JMatPro program showed $MgZn_2$, AlCuMgZn and Al3Fe phases on microstructure of their alloys. Increase of Zn and Mg amounts in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys resulted in gradual reduction of the thermal conductivity of their alloys. Increase of Mg amounts in Al-2%Zn-Mg-Fe alloys had little effect on the tensile strength of their alloys, but increase of Mg amounts in Al-4%Zn-Mg-Fe alloys resulted in steep increase of the tensile strength of their alloys.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.171-180
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• 2013

The effects of alloying elements on the solidification characteristics, microstructure, thermal conductivity, and tensile strength of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys were investigated for the development of high strength and high thermal conductivity aluminium alloy for die casting. The amounts of Zn and Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys had little effect on the liquidus/solidus temperature, the latent heat for solidification, the energy release for solidification and the fluidity of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys. Thermo-physical modelling of Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys by the JMatPro program showed $MgZn_2$, AlCuMgZn and $Al_3Fe$ phases in the microstructure of the alloys. Increased amounts of Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys resulted in phase transformation, such as $MgZn_2{\Rightarrow}MgZn_2+AlCuMgZn{\Rightarrow}AlCuMgZn$ in the microstructure of the alloys. Increased amounts of Zn and Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys resulted in a gradual reduction of the thermal conductivity of the alloys. Increased amounts of Zn and Mg in Al-Zn-Mg-Fe alloys had little effect on the tensile strength of the alloys.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1048-1049
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• 2006

Rapidly solidified ribbon-consolidation processing was applied for preparation of high strength bulk Mg-Zn-Gd alloys. Mg alloys have been used in automotive and aerospace industries. Rapid solidification (RS) process is suitable for the development of high strength Mg alloys, because the process realizes grain-refinement, increase in homogeneity, and so on. Recently, several nanocrystalline Mg-Zn-Y alloys with high specific tensile strength and large elongation have been developed by rapidly solidified powder metallurgy (RS P/M) process. Mg-Zn-Y RS P/M alloys are characterized by long period ordered (LPO) structure and sub-micron fine grains. The both additions of rare earth elements and zinc remarkably improved the mechanical properties of RS Mg alloys. Mg-Zn-Gd alloy also forms LPO structure in -Mg matrix coherently, therefore, it is expected that the RS Mg-Zn-Gd alloys have excellent mechanical properties. In this study, we have developed high strength RS Mg-Zn-Gd alloys with LPO structure and nanometer-scale precipitates by RS ribbon-consolidation processing. $Mg_{97}Zn_1Gd_2$ and $Mg_{95.5}Zn_{1.5}Gd_3$ and $Mg_{94}Zn_2Gd_4$ bulk alloys exhibited high tensile yield strength (470 MPa and 525 MPa and 566 MPa) and large elongation (5.5% and 2.8% and 2.4%).

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.137-141
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• 2010

The effects of Zn amounts on the castability and tensile properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys were investigated for development of high strength die casting aluminium alloys. Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys with 3.5% Zn showed high cast cracking tendency and poor mold filling behaviour. Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys with 5wt% Zn and 7wt% Zn had the tensile strengths of 300~400MPa and the elongations of 2~18%. The effect of Zn on the tensile strength of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys was insignificant, but Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy with high Zn amount had lower elongation.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.100-106
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• 2014

In recent years, Mg and its alloys have attracted a great deal of attention due to their low density, relatively excellent castability, and straightforward recyclability. Mg alloys have been widely applied to various industrial fields, and are representatively used in automotive and electronic parts. According to previous researches, the electrical conductivity of Mg alloys greatly decreases with increasing Al content. However, with the addition of Zn and/or Cu, the electrical conductivity of Mg alloys is maintained or slightly increased, and improved mechanical properties are obtained as well. On this basis, Mg-Zn-Cu alloys have been investigated in the present study with a focus on the effect of adding Zn and Cu on the electrical conductivity. The Zn and Cu contents ranged from 4 to 6wt.% and 0 to 1.5wt.%, respectively. Ternary Mg-Zn-Cu alloys have been prepared by gravity casting in a steel mold. In the as-casting condition, the electrical conductivity of Mg-Zn-Cu alloys showed a linear increasing trend with decreasing Zn and increasing Cu contents. Furthermore, impact values of Zn = -1.5 and Cu = 2.5 were determined for these alloys by electrical conductivity tests.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.38-46
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• 1999

Microstructural characteristics and strengthening behavior in Mg-5wt%Zn-0.6wtZr alloys have been investigated by a combination of optical, secondary electron and transmission electron microscopy, differential thermal analysis, and hardness and tensile, creep property measurements. The result have been compared with those of Mg-5wt%Zn alloys. The as-squeeze cast microstructure consisted of dendrite ${\alpha}-Mg$, interdendrite or intergranular $Mg_7Zn_3$ and fine dispersoids of $ZnZr_2$. The size of secondary solidification phases in Mg-5wt%Zn-0.6wtZr alloys was significantly smaller than that of the Mg-5wt%Zn alloys due to the existence of fine dispersoid of $ZnZr_2$ which also effected the refinement of grain size. TEM study showed that the main cause of age hardening is formation of fine rodlike ${\beta}_1\;'$ precipitates as well as fine $ZnZr_2$ dispersoids. Due to the observed microstructural characteristics mechanical propeties of Mg-5wt%Zn-0.6wtZr alloys was found to be superior to those of Mg-5wt%Zn alloys.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.395-399
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• 2000

The main interdendritic phase which was formed during early solidification of the ternary Mg-Zn-Ca alloys is the $Ca_2Mg_6Zn_3$ phase. The microstructure of $Mg-6wt%Zn-0.1{\sim}0.3wt%Ca$ alloys consisted of MgZn precipitates and $Ca_2Mg_6Zn_3$ phase formed around the grain boundaries. In the alloys with the highest level of Ca($Mg-6wt%Zn-0.5{\sim}0.7wt%aCa$ alloys), the microstructure revealed wholly $Ca_2Mg_6Zn_3$ phase formed around the grain boundaries. The grain size of Mg-6wt%Zn-Ca alloys decreased significantly with increase in Ca content and, at 0.5wt% Ca or more, grain size becomes constant at about 60 ${\mu}m$. The tensile properties of the as-cast Mg-6wt%Zn-Ca magnesium alloys were improved due to grain refinement by addition of Ca.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.592-597
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• 1997

The microstructure and tensile properties of Mg-Zn-Ca and Mg-Zn-Mn-Ca alloys have been investigated. The alloys were obtained by melting in a low carbon crucible coated with boron nitride under an Ar gas atmosphere to prevent oxidation and combustion. The Mg alloy melt was cast into the metallic mold at room temperature, and cooling part was located at the bottom of mold. The phase formed during solidification of the Mg-Zn-(Mn) alloys containing 0.5%Ca is $Ca_2Mg_6Zn_3$. The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the alloys increased with increasing Zn content, but the ductility did not change with increasing Zn content. The addition of Mn improves the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the alloys, but the ductility did not change. Tensile fracture of the alloys revealed brittle failure, with cracking along the $Ca_2Mg_6Zn_3$ phase. The variation of stress with strain obeyed the relationship of the ${\sigma}=K{\varepsilon}^n$.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2012

Al-Zn-Mg alloys, being high strength aluminum alloys, have attracted attention as a material of automobile parts that require higher mechanical properties and lightness. Automobile parts with complex shapes are manufactured by low-priced casting method, but Al-Zn-Mg alloys are difficult to cast because of its poor hot cracking, feeding, and fluidity. Thus fluidity experiments on Al-Zn-Mg alloys were conducted for the castability evaluation. The effects of Mg and Zn, representative elements of Al-Zn-Mg alloys, on fluidity were observed. Spiral mold was used for fluidity experiments and the lengths of solidified specimens were measured after melting and gravity casting. Correlation between microstructures and fluidity length based on the alloy composition was considered. According to the experimental results, as the amount of Mg and Zn increased, fluidity decreased. Also, it was confirmed that fluidity change by the variation of Mg composition was greater than that of Zn.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1043-1044
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• 2006

Compositional dependence of corrosion behavior of rapidly solidified Mg-rich Mg-Zn-Y alloys in NaCl aqueous solution has been investigated. Mg-Zn-Y ternary alloys containing small amounts of Zn exhibited low corrosion rate, although the $Mg_{98}Y_2$ (at. %) binary alloy showed severe corrosion with violet evolution of hydrogen. The alloy with highest corrosion-resistance was $Mg_{97.25}Zn_{0.75_Y_2$, its corrosion rate was about 1 mm year-1 in 0.17 M (1.0 wt. %) NaCl solution. $Mg_{97.25}Zn_{0.75}Y_2$ alloy exhibited passive region in anodic polarization curves when immersed in NaCl solution. Rapidly solidification and small amount of Zn addition may bring about an increase in electrochemical homogeneity of Mg-Zn-Y alloys, resulting in enhancement of corrosion resistance.