Fabrication of Al7075/Al, two phase material, by recycling Al7075 alloy chips using powder metallurgy route

In the present study, the feasibility of recycling Al7075 alloy chips with the help of commercially pure Al powders, via powder metallurgy route by hot extrusion process, was investigated. Furthermore, the effect of Al powders and their amounts on the mechanical properties of the recycled chips were studied. To evaluate the quality of the products, their microstructures were studied using optical microscope. Also, their mechanical properties, including tensile and microhardness, were evaluated. The results proved that in order to produce high quality samples, including large amount of chips, hot extrusion should be carried out at temperatures higher than 500 °C. At this temperature good bonding between chips and powder can be created which thus results in excellent mechanical properties. The results also indicate that by increasing the chips wt% in the products, the strength increases and ductility decreases, so that for the samples including the higher amount of chips (60 wt%), the strength and ductility (strain to fracture) were determined to be 248 MPa and 14.4%, respectively, which were about 2 times more and lower than the strength and the ductility of the samples include zero percent of chips, produced at the same conditions, respectively.