Microstructural and mechanical studies of feedstock material in continuous extrusion process

The challenge encountered in continuous forming process is the variation in mechanical strength of product formed with respect to process variables like extrusion wheel speed and diameter of product. In this research article, the micro-structural investigation of the aluminum (AA1100) feedstock material of 9.5-mm diameter has been carried out at various extrusion wheel speeds and diameter of product before and after deformation on commercial continuous extrusion setup TBJ350. The mechanical properties like yield strength as well as percentage elongation have been estimated and optimized using two variables with 3 levels through central composite rotatable design (CCRD) method. The mathematical modeling has been carried out to predict the optimum combination of process parameters for obtaining maximum value of yield strength and percentage elongation. The statistical significance of mathematical model is verified through analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimum value of yield strength is found to be 70.939 MPa at wheel velocity of 8.63 rpm and product diameter of 9 mm respectively, whereas the maximum percentage elongation recorded is 46.457 at wheel velocity of 7.06 rpm and product diameter of 7.18 mm. The outcome may be useful in obtaining the best parametric combination of wheel speed and extrusion ratio for best strength of the product.