Vertical twin roll casting of aluminum alloy A7075 on copper rolls at low speed and high pressure

This paper reports on vertical twin-roll casting of aluminum alloy A7075. Aluminum alloy A7075 belongs to the highest strength alloys and is used in the aerospace industry and for special applications, but it has high sensitivity to solidification cracking and is difficult to obtain in sheet form. Double roll casting enables the direct production of thin plates from molten metal, allowing the manufacture of plates using alloys other than those traditionally used for plate production. We investigated the effects of roll speed on the continuity, surface properties, thickness, microstructure, and Vickers hardness of the thin plates. Additionally, we measured the area ratio of the metallic luster region, which indicates good contact between the thin plate and the roll. The experiment was conducted under three conditions: roll peripheral speeds of 5, 7, and 10 m/min. In this experiment, thin plate production was possible under all conditions, demonstrating that the production of thin plates from aluminum alloy A7075 using vertical double roll casting is feasible.