A unique alloy for use in air and rail transportation

Scientists from the National Research Technological University “NUST MISiS” together with their colleagues from the “Scientific Research Center for Magnetic Hydrodynamics” from Krasnoyarsk, Russia, have created a technology to obtain a unique heat-resistant aluminum alloy with high strength.

The new alloy could replace the heavy, expensive copper conductors used in airplanes and railroads, and the research was published in Materials Letters.

The researchers are talking about a way to obtain a unique wire that is highly durable and heat-resistant. The wire consists of an aluminum alloy originally cast in the form of a long rod with a diameter of about 10 mm in an electromagnetic crystallization mould, with which the researchers were able to obtain a thermally stable structure (up to 400 °C), which significantly exceeds the known aluminum alloys with thermal stability. while retaining its properties up to 250-300 ° C.

Nikolai Belov, a professor at the Department of Metallurgical Pressure Processing at NUST MISIS, indicated during an interview with RIA Novosti that earlier, there was an attempt to obtain alloys with a similar structure using a complex and expensive technology through the method of rapid crystallization of the melt and obtaining granules and subsequent methods for metal powders.

In this context, researchers from NUST MISiS performed a direct processing of a long rod that included rolling and drawing, without using the traditional homogenization and cooling processes of the aluminum alloy. The main advantage of the technique proposed by the researchers in the cases of casting and annealing is that it makes it possible to obtain a structure from thermally stable nanoparticles containing copper, manganese and zirconium.

Turgum Akopian, senior researcher in the Department of Pressure Metal Processing at the University of “NUST MISIS” indicated during an interview with “Sputnik” that from this alloy it was possible to obtain a high-strength and heat-resistant wire. Now its physical and mechanical properties are being determined, with the first results already very impressive. A patent is being planned for a method for producing such a wire.

Heat-resistant, high-strength conductors can find application in the express transportation of aircraft and railways instead of the expensive, heavy copper conductors. According to the researchers, this unique and cheap technology may be of great interest to manufacturers of processed and semi-finished aluminum alloys.

Here it is necessary to note the fact that the main results of the work were obtained with financial support from the grant of the Russian Science Fund No. 20-19-00249