The impact of melt conditioning on microstructure, texture and ductility of twin roll cast aluminium alloy strips

Twin roll casting (TRC) is recognised as an effective processing route for producing low cost Al sheet. However, the quality of the Al alloys sheets produced by the TRC process is limited by the formation of centre-line segregation which prevents its application in a wide range of engineering sectors. To improve the quality of the TRC strips, a new technology, melt conditioning twin roll casting (MC-TRC) has been developed from the industrial point of view. Enhanced nucleation by melt conditioning favours the advance of an equiaxed solidification front which results in reduced sump depth and a refined, uniform, defect free microstructure. The results obtained show that the differences in microstructure and in the crystallographic texture have a significant impact on ductility (22% improvement) of the MC-TRC sheets compared to TRC sheets.