Refinement of Solidification Microstructures by the MCAST Process

MCAST (melt conditioning by advanced shear technology) is a novel processing technology developed recently for conditioning liquid metal under intensive forced convection prior to solidification processing. The MCAST process uses a twin screw mechanism to impose a high shear rate and a high intensity of turbulence to the liquid metal, so that the conditioned liquid metal has uniform temperature, uniform chemical composition and well-dispersed and completely wetted oxide particles with a fine size and a narrow size distribution. The microstructural refinement is achieved through an enhanced heterogeneous nucleation rate and an increased nuclei survival rate during the subsequent solidification processing. In this paper we present the MCAST process and its applications for microstructural refinement in both shape casting and continuous casting of light alloys. Discussions will be made on the effect of intensive forced convection on the enhanced heterogeneous nucleation. The concept of physical grain refinement will be proposed and discussed in contrast to the conventional chemical grain refinement by addition of grain refiners.