ABSTRACT
The cooling slope (CS) casting is the simplest and cheapest technique for producing feedstock materials with non-dendritic microstructure required for semi-solid metal (SSM) processing methods such as thixoforming. In the present investigation, the effect of the pouring temperature and the water cooling on the thixotropic microstructure of commercial A319 Al-Si cast alloy was studied. The results showed that increasing the pouring temperature slightly reduces the bulk porosity of the CS ingots. The ingots poured with water-cooling exhibited slightly lower porosity content than those poured with without water-cooling. Generally, it has been found that the primary α-Al grains have generally higher shape factor near the edge of ingot than the middle and center. Ingots poured with water-cooling exhibited lower grain size and shape factor than those poured without water-cooling. Increasing the pouring temperature increases the size α-Al grains. Ingots poured with water-cooling exhibited higher hardness values than those poured without water-cooling.