Studies on drawing of the aluminium A5052 alloy in the thixocast condition

Thixoforming studies have been developed, mainly in processes such as forging and die casting, due to the advantages that the semi-solid processing presents when compared to the conventional forming, such as reduction of the forming force, near net shape products, increase of die life. However, the knowledge is very poor in drawing of thixocast materials. This work analyses the behaviour of A5052 sheets with thixocast structure when submitted to drawing tests, comparatively to rolled sheets. Thixocast conditions were produced by partial melting. Deformations were measured by means of a digital camera coupled with the press. The method used allows measurements of deformations in plane samples trough a digital image correlation; samples with several widths—40–200 mm (various strain paths) were strained until rupture and a special software was used to achieve the deformation values. Forming limit diagrams were built. Results show that rheocast sheets present deformations in the order of 25% larger than rolled material, at 40% lower pressures; forming limit diagrams show higher formability of the rheocast structures when compared to rolled structures.