Journal of Materials Processing Technology 187188 (2007) 508511

Roll casting of wire inserted aluminum alloy strip

T. Haga a, , K. Takahashi a , H. Inui a , H. Sakaguchi a , H. Watari b , S. Kumai c
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, 5-16-1 Omiya Asahiku Osaka City, Osaka 535-8585, Japan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Oyana National College of Technology, 771 Nakakuki Oyama City, Tochigi 323-0806, Japan
c Department of Material Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama City, Kanagawa 226-8502, Japan

Abstract
Casting of wire inserted composite strip was tried using a downward melt drag twin roll caster. Casting and insert of the wire was operated
by one process. Therefore, many steps to make metal matrix composite alloy can be saved by the process of the present study. The effects of the
important casting conditions, which are roll speed and nozzle slit, on the insert of the wire were investigated in the present study. The puddle of the
melt formed on the lower roll was significantly concern to the inserting of the wire. The wire could be inserted in the strip when proper conditions
were selected. Reaction between the wire and matrix could be restricted in narrower area.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Metal matrix composite; Fiver inserted composite; Twin roll caster; Downward melt drag twin roll caster

1. Introduction
It was difficult to make longer metal matrix fiber inserted
composite strip by the conventional process, for example, hot
isostatic pressing (HIP). Usually, many processes were needed
to make composite material. Therefore, the process, which can
make the longer metal matrix fiber inserted composite strip only
by one step (one process), has been desired. A process to make
longer fiber inserted composite was devised. Fabrication of wire
inserted composite strip was tried using a twin roll caster. This
twin roll caster was developed to cast the wire inserted composite
strip.
A twin roll caster can cast strip directly from melt [14].
Therefore, the twin roll caster has several advantages. First of
all, the twin roll caster is a very simple process. Also, the twin roll
caster has the advantages of process saving and energy saving,
and low equipment cost. However, there are few processes that
utilize the twin roll caster. In this study, the twin roll caster was
used to fabricate composite material. Using the twin roll caster,
a large-sized (i.e., long) composite sheet material could be made
continuously [5]. This verifies the substantial process saving and
energy saving that can be realized by the twin roll caster. It should
be noted, however, that in the conventional twin roll caster for
aluminum alloys, the insertion of wire between the two rolls is
difficult. A downward melt-drag twin roll caster was used in the

Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 6 6954 4888; fax: +81 6 6957 2134.
E-mail address: haga@med.oit.ac.jp (T. Haga).

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2006.11.088

present study, because the wire can be inserted between the rolls
[6,7]. As the first step of our current research on the casting of a
wire-inserted composite strip using the twin roll caster, the effect
of the main casting parameters on the insertion of the wire was
investigated. The parameters were roll speed and nozzle slit.
2. Experimental setup
Fig. 1 shows an experimental apparatus of the present study. A downward
melt drag twin roll caster was used for fabrication of the wire inserted metal
matrix composite. Experimental conditions are shown in Table 1. The wire was
not preheated or not coated to improve the wetting between the wire and the
melt. The wire was set at the roll bite before the pouring of the molten metal.
The position of the wire in the width direction was located by a wire support.
The position of the wire in the thickness direction of the strip was not located by
the wire support. The wire support did not have the function of feeding the wire.

3. Results and discussion

Condition of the insertion of the wire in the strip was classified
into three types as shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2(a) shows that the wire
could be inserted in the strip. (b) shows that the wire was inserted
lower surface. (c) shows that the wire was not be inserted. The
influence of the roll speed and nozzle-slit on the insertion of
the wire in the strip is shown in Fig. 3. There was tendency
that the insertion of the wire became possible as the roll speed
became higher and the slit became wider. When the slit was
2.1 mm, the wire could be inserted at the condition of 30 m/minroll-speed. However, the wire could not be inserted at roll-speed
of 10 m/min. Thickness of the strip increased with the decrease

T. Haga et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 187188 (2007) 508511

509

Fig. 3. Influence of slit size of the nozzle and roll speed on the insertion of the
wire. (), () and () correspond with Fig. 2.
Fig. 1. Experimental apparatus.
Table 1
Experimental conditions
Upper roll
Lower roll
Roll speed
Load of roll
Nozzle

Wire
Molten metal

Copper: D, 300 mm; W: 100 mm

Copper: D, 250 mm; W: 100 mm
10, 20, 30 m/min
230 N/mm (unit width)
Width: 30 mm, melt height: 20 mm, slit
(nozzle-roll gap): 1.8, 2.1, 2.4 mm,
slope length: 20 mm
Mild steel, diameter 0.3 mm
1050, temperature: 680 C

of the roll speed. This shows that the ability of the wire-insert
cannot be decided only by the strip thickness.
The wire was inserted in the layer solidified by the lower roll.
Therefore the insert of the fire was influenced by the thickness
of the lower solidification layer. Fig. 4 shows the effect of the
roll speed on the puddle size. The puddle at speed of 30 m/min
became larger than that at speed of 10 m/min. Schematic illustration showing the relationship between the roll speed and the
size of the puddle is illustrated in Fig. 4, too. The solidification layer becomes thinner as the roll speed becomes higher.
Therefore, the gap between the nozzle and solidification layer
becomes wider as the roll speed becomes higher. The quantity of
the melt dragged from the slit becomes larger as the roll becomes
higher. As the result, the puddle at speed of 30 m/min became
larger than that at speed of 10 m/min. The relationship among
the roll speed, thickness of the lower solidification layer, thickness of the wire and the insert was shown in Fig. 5. When the

roll speed became slower, the strip becomes thicker. The thickness of solidification layer solidified by the upper roll becomes
thicker as the roll speed becomes slower. However, the solidification layer solidified by the lower roll becomes thinner as the roll
speed becomes slower. As the result, there was tendency that the
insertion became difficult as the roll speed became slower. The
sufficient thickness of the lower solidification layer was needed
to insert the wire in the strip.
The slit clearance influenced on the insert of the wire in the
strip as shown in Fig. 3. There was tendency that the insert
became able as the slit became wider. It can be estimate that the
lower solidification layer becomes thicker as the slit becomes
wider. The puddle became larger as the slit became wider.
This means that quantity of the melt dragged through the slit
increased. The strip became thicker as the slit became wider.
However, solidification layer solidified by the upper roll did not
become thicker as the slit became wider. The upper solidification layer was almost constant when the slit clearance changed.
The slit clearance did not influence the solidification time of the
upper solidification layer. Therefore, the thickness of the upper
solidification layer was constant. The thickness of only the lower
solidification layer increased as the slit clearance became wider.
The increase of the thickness of the strip was as same as the
increase of the lower solidification layer. The lower solidification layer solidified in the puddle. The larger the puddle, the
thicker the lower solidification layer. The ability of the insert
of the wire increased when the slit clearance became wide, as
the lower solidification layer became thicker. The relationship
among slit-clearance, thickness of lower solidification layer and
ability of the wire-insert is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 2. Classification of the wire insertion. Lower sides of the trip and schematic illustration showing wire-position are shown. () The wire was inserted inside the
strip. Sound condition, () The wire was inserted in the lower surface. No good condition, () the wire was not inserted in the strip. No good condition.

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T. Haga et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 187188 (2007) 508511

Fig. 4. Photographs shows the effect of the roll speed on the puddle-size. Schematic illustration showing the effect of the roll speed on the thickness of the upper
and lower solidification layers.

Fig. 5. Schematic illustration showing the effect of the roll speed on the thickness
of the lower solidification layer and insert of the wire in the strip. D: fiber
diameter; tl : thickness of lower solidification layer, (), () and () correspond
with Fig. 2.

Fig. 6. Schematic illustration showing the relationship among the strip thickness, thickness of lower solidification layer and wire insert-condition. D: fiber
diameter; tl : thickness of lower solidification layer, (), () and () correspond
with Fig. 2.

Fig. 7. Reaction between the wire and matrix. Result of EPMA line analysis at the wire-strip boundary is shown in (a) and (b). Casting using the insulator mold is
shown for comparison.

T. Haga et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 187188 (2007) 508511

Fig. 7 shows reaction between the wire and the melt. In

Fig. 7(a) and (b) are result of roll casting, and (c) is result of the
mold casting. The most of the part of the wire, which inserted
in the ingot cast using the insulator mold, was reacted with the
molten metal as shown in Fig. 7(c). It was difficult to measure
the diameter of the wire. However, the wire inserted in the strip
could exist as the wire. The diameter of the wire inserted in the
strip was thicker than 0.26 mm. The difference of the reaction
depended on the contact time between the wire and the melt.
Contact time was defined as below; from contact-start of the
wire to the melt until solidification of the melt. In the roll casting, the contact time between the melt and the wire was shorter
than 2 103 s. On the other hand, the contact time was about
for 5 s in the mold casting. The twin roll caster could restrict the
reaction by the short contact time. This is the advantage of the
process of the present study. The reaction layer became thinner
as the roll speed became higher as shown in Fig. 7. Therefore, the
higher roll speed is better in order to make sound wire inserted
metal matrix composite.
4. Conclusions
The process to make the wire inserted metal matrix composite using a twin roll caster was devised. In this process, the wire

511

could be inserted in the strip simultaneously with strip casting

only by the one process. Sound insertion of the wire could be
realized by the control of the roll speed and slit clearance. The
characteristics of the process are as below. Long size composite can be made at speeds higher than 10 m/min. The reaction
between the wire and the melt could be restricted in the narrow area by the effect of the rapid solidification of the twin roll
casting.
References
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caster, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 133 (2003) 103107.
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