Influence of scrap-related
tramp elements in aluminum alloys on the thermodynamics and kinetics
of precipitation reactions and their mechanical and electrochemical
effects |
Effect of scrap-related
impurities on interface decohesion, phase formation, precipitation-free
zones, precipitation kinetics, precipitation-free zones around grain
boundaries, surface finish, mechanical properties and corrosion |
Quality of thermodynamic
and kinetic databases for the study of impurity-related spinodal,
metastable and intermetallic phases |
Influence of scrap-related
contaminant elements on vacancy formation enthalpy and mobility |
Inoculant systems
suited
for scrap-contaminated cast alloys |
Scrap-related impurity effects
on cast aluminum microstructures. Adjustment of solidification, solutionizing
and heat treatment processes to cope with the effects of contaminant
elements and the associated intermetallic phases |
Possibilities of adjusting
processing parameters for higher scrap tolerance such as higher cooling
rates |
Design
and processing of
aluminum alloys with the highest possible scrap fractions, using low-quality
scrap and scrap types which match only a few target alloys when recycled |
Improved and
fully automated
scrap sorting, including automated chipping, spectroscopy and artificial-intelligence-assisted
alloy detection, classification and sorting |
In-production scrap collection,
including alloy-specific scrap collection during synthesis and manufacturing |
Post-consumer
scrap use
along the development of low-grade and composition-tolerant alloys |
Development of
products
that can tolerate and accommodate higher scrap-related contaminant
content in alloys |
Design of scrap-tolerant
alloys for high-scrap-related tramp element content |
Development of alloys that
use less harmful and critical alloying elements |
Selection of alloying elements
according to lowest energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. |
Avoidance of
rare and less-responsible
elements as alloying ingredients |
Recycling as part of the
entire alloy design workflow. This includes to ensure that alloys
and by-products can be collected and recycled so that recyclability
becomes an integral aspect of alloy and process design, considering
also optimal material recovery of auxiliaries, scrap and unintended
by-products |
Closed scrap collection
loops in-house and with customers |
Methods for the removal
of alloy-specific harmful tramp elements from scrap melts |
Development of cross-over
alloys and generally of alloys with higher impurity robustness to
act as better scrap acceptor materials and more composition-friendly
scrap donor materials |