An aluminum alloy fin material for a heat exchanger is made of an aluminum alloy including 0.05 mass % to 0.5 mass % of Si, 0.05 mass % to 0.7 mass % of Fe, 10 mass % to 2.0 mass % of Mn, 0.5 mass % to 1.5 mass % of Cu, and 3.0 mass % to 7.0 mass % of Zn, with the balance being Al and unavoidable impurities. In an L-ST plane thereof, second-phase grains having an equivalent circle diameter equal to or more than 0.030 m and less than 0.50 m have a perimeter density of 0.30 m/m.sup.2 or more, second-phase grains having an equivalent circle diameter equal to or more than 0.50 m have a perimeter density of 0.030 m/m.sup.2 or more, and specific resistance thereof at 20 C. is 0.030 m or more.

This invention relates to magnetocaloric materials comprising ternary alloys useful for magnetic refrigeration applications. The disclosed ternary alloys are Cerium, Neodymium, and/or Gadolinium based compositions that are fairly inexpensive, and in some cases exhibit only 2.sup.nd order magnetic phase transitions near their curie temperature, thus there are no thermal and structural hysteresis losses. This makes these compositions attractive candidates for use in magnetic refrigeration applications. The performance of the disclosed materials is similar or better to many of the known expensive rare-earth based magnetocaloric materials.

A process for producing a silicon ingot by smelting silicon powder, including (a) furnace starting: preparing a silicon liquid having a standard purity in an intermediate frequency furnace; (b) silicon smelting: adding the silicon power to the silicon liquid for smelting, so as to obtain a silicon liquid; and (c) molding: reserving a silicon liquid accounting for 15%-20% of a capacity of the silicon liquid in the intermediate frequency furnace as an initial silicon liquid for a next smelting, and pouring the rest of the silicon liquid into a molding system, thereby producing the silicon ingot. The present invention uses weak conductivity of the silicon liquid to realize induction heating, achieving the purpose of smelting the silicon block. The approach provided by the present invention that uses the induction furnace to smelt silicon can largely improve the production and output efficiency.

The present invention discloses a nanoporous copper-zinc-aluminum shape memory alloy and a preparation method and an application thereof. According to the method, firstly a pure Cu block, a pure Zn block and a pure Al block are proportioned in a certain mass ratio before being smelted to obtain a copper-zinc-aluminum alloy ingot; the obtained copper-zinc-aluminum alloy ingot is melt spun using a copper roller rapid quenching method under vacuum protection to obtain an ultrathin strip CuZnAl master alloy which is then subjected to an etching treatment with a solution containing chloride ions at a temperature of 080 C. for 10300 minutes to obtain a nanoporous Cu/CuZnAl material; and finally the nanoporous CuZnAl material is sealed in a high vacuum quartz tube for a heat treatment to obtain a nanoporous copper-zinc-aluminum shape memory alloy having a superelastic single phase at room temperature. The preparation method according to the present invention is highly controllable and can be used in the industry preparing electrode materials for lithium ion secondary batteries to remarkably improve the cyclic performance of electrode materials.

A casting method of an active metal includes, in an induction melting furnace using a water-cooled crucible, tapping a molten metal into a mold from a tapping hole provided at a bottom of the water-cooled copper crucible to cast an ingot of the active metal. In conducting the casting under a casting condition in which the ingot has a diameter (D) of 10 mm or more and a ratio (H/D) of an ingot height H to the ingot diameter D of 1.5 or more and a weight of the molten metal tapped in the casting is 200 kg or less, a temperature of the molten metal in the casting is set to be higher than the melting point of the active metal and a casting velocity V (mm/sec) is controlled to satisfy V0.1H in relation with the ingot height H by adjusting an opening diameter of the tapping hole.

A method for manufacturing a part including steps of (1) casting an ingot, (2) scalping the ingot to yield a scalped ingot, (3) homogenizing the scalped ingot to yield a homogenized ingot, (4) breakdown of the homogenized ingot to yield a slab, (5) rolling the slab to yield a rolled aluminum material, (6) annealing the rolled aluminum material to yield an aluminum starting material, (7) cold working the aluminum starting material to obtain an aluminum cold worked material, and (8) forming the part from the aluminum cold worked material.

A method for producing a rolled product 0.5 to 10 mm thick made from an aluminum alloy comprising, in particular, copper and lithium, in which, after solution annealing and quenching, a short heat treatment is carried out in which the sheet reaches a temperature of between 145 C. and 175 C. for 0.1 to 45 minutes, the speed of heating being between 3 and 600 C./min. The sheet obtained at the end of the method according to the invention has high corrosion resistance and is capable of being shaped for producing a structural element for an aircraft, in particular an aircraft fuselage skin.

The invention relates to a method for the production of a mechanical part, comprising the following successive steps: casting of a billet of aluminum alloy with a composition (in weight %) of 0.4-3.0 Si; 0.6-2.0 Mg; 0.20-1.0 Cu; 0.15-1.8 Fe; Mn<0.5; Ni<1; Ti<0.15; Cr<0.35; Bi<0.8; Pb<0.4; Zr<0.04; other elements <0.05 each and <0.15 total, the remainder being aluminum; homogenization of the billet; extrusion of the billet in order to obtain an extruded product; quenching while at extrusion heat; optional cold-deformation and/or straightening, typically by means of pulling and/or drawing, and/or curing of the extruded product; tempering; optional cold-deformation of the extruded product, typically by drawing; machining of the resulting extruded product in order to obtain a turned mechanical part; optional shaping of the resulting mechanical part; anodizing of the resulting mechanical part at a temperature of between 15 and 40 C with a solution comprising between 100 and 250 g/l sulphuric acid and between 10 and 30 g/l oxalic acid and between 5 and 30 g/l of at least one polyol. The anodized turned mechanical parts obtained using the method of the invention have, in particular, advantageous roughness and excellent corrosion resistance and can be used, in particular, as brake pistons or gearbox elements.

The present disclosure provides a pulse current assisted uncanned rolling method for titanium-TiAl composite plates, including the following specific steps: 1. preparing titanium alloy sheets; 2. preparing TiAl alloy sheets; 3. uncanned lay-up; 4. pulse current assisted hot-rolling; 5. separation and subsequent processing, thus getting the titanium-TiAl composite plates. The composite plates are of good quality on the surface without oxide layer shedding, no cracks at the edges and the ends, with uniform and fine microstructures, good bonding interface and excellent mechanical properties.

A method for the continuous casting of metal strands. The liquid metal is simultaneously cast via a molds into metal strands. The molds each have a narrow side and a broad side. The molds have a uniform narrow side so that the metal strands have equal thicknesses after casting. At least one of the molds used has a broad side whose length differs from the length of the broad side of the other simultaneously used molds. For each mold used, a sprue stone is provided, which is arranged on a casting table and is provided for receiving the starter strands. The casting of the metal strands includes a mold filling phase with a fixed casting table in which a plurality of starter strands is cast into the associated sprue stones. The casting includes a continuous casting phase in which the casting table is lowered and metal strands are cast.