Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

An investigation into aluminumaluminum bimetal fabrication

by squeeze casting
Teng Liu a, Qudong Wang a,, Yudong Sui a, Qigui Wang b, Wenjiang Ding a
a
b

National Engineering Research Center of Light Alloys Net Forming and State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composite, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200030 Shanghai, PR China
General Motors Global Powertrain Engineering, 823 Joslyn Avenue, Pontiac, MI 48340-2920, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 29 September 2014
Accepted 26 November 2014
Available online 4 December 2014
Keywords:
Aluminum alloy
Squeeze casting
Interface
Microstructure
Mechanical properties

a b s t r a c t
Aluminumaluminum bimetal were prepared by casting liquid A356 aluminum alloy onto 6101
aluminum extrusion bars and solidifying under applied pressure. The effect of surface treatment, pouring
temperature and applied pressure on microstructure and mechanical properties of the bimetal was investigated. The results showed that sound metallic bonding could be produced by electro-plating the solid
6101 aluminum alloy with a layer of zinc coating and carefully controlling the casting temperature. With
the application of pressure during solidication process, the tensile strength exhibited more promising
results than that made by gravity casting, for both A356 aluminum alloy matrix and bimetal. However,
with the increase of applied pressure, A356 aluminum alloy matrix and bimetal showed different behaviors. For A356 aluminum alloy matrix, the tensile strength increased with the increase of applied pressure, for bimetal it appeared to be independent on the magnitude of the applied pressure and the
value remained steady. The fracture analysis indicated that during the tensile test of bimetal, the crack
initiation began with initial fracture of eutectic Si in the transition zone then extended in the transition
zone. The tensile strength of the bimetal fabricated by squeeze casting method was improved by about
10%, from 145 MPa to 155 MPa, as compared with that made by gravity casting. The process presented
in this study provides a promising and effective approach to create a metallic bonding between an
aluminum insert and various aluminum melts to develop advanced functional and structural materials.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Light metal castings have been extensively used in the automotive and aerospace industries for lightweight applications [1,2].
When one single light material alone does not satisfy the requirements of high performance and efciency at low cost, bimetallic
design and manufacturing appears to be an ideal solution. Compound casting is dened as a production technology where two
metals, one in solid state while the other in liquid state, are
brought into contact with each other and thus a continuous metallic transition occurs from one metal to the other [3]. Because of its
high efciency and low cost, this method has drawn great attention in a variety systems, such as magnesium alloy and aluminum
alloy [46], aluminum alloy and cast iron [7], aluminum alloy and
copper [8,9], gray iron and copper [10], magnesium alloy and
magnesium alloy [11]. However, the application of this method is
Corresponding author at: National Engineering Research Center of Light Alloys
Net Forming, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800, Dongchuan Road, Shanghai
200240, PR China. Tel.: +86 21 54742715; fax: +86 21 34202794.
E-mail address: wangqudong@sjtu.edu.cn (Q. Wang).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2014.11.051
0261-3069/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

still very limited in aluminum alloy [3,12]. Because solid aluminum

alloys are always naturally covered with an oxide lm, which is
thermodynamically stable and not easily wettable by metallic
melts.
A promising approach of joining aluminum alloys was presented by Papis et al. [3] by replacing the oxide layer with a
electro-deposited zinc coating. Couples of AlMg1 substrate and
various aluminum alloys were successfully produced in a laboratory-scale. Defect-free interfaces could be realized by precisely
operating in an Ar 6.0 atmosphere. However, the characterization
of the joint interface is not well investigated and the mechanical
properties of the joint are unknown. Based on Papiss method,
Rubner et al. [12] and Koerner et al. [13] focused on the realization
of aluminumaluminum bimetals using high pressure die casting.
However, the very high and locally varying melt velocities sometimes completely washed away the zinc coating, furthermore,
bonding strength of the aluminumaluminum bimetal is still
unexplored.
Squeeze casting is a technical process in which metal is solidied under pressure, and can be regarded as a combination of
die-casting and closed die forging [14,15]. Application of pressure

T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

on molten metal during solidication may cause a series of effects,

such as change of solidication rate, change of melting point,
change of phase diagram and reduction of gas and shrinkage
porosities [16]. As a consequence, squeeze casting components
always exhibit superior mechanical properties and casting soundness compared with the conventional ones. The parameters that
affect the cast microstructure and which need to be optimized
are pouring temperature, mould temperature, applied pressure,
time delay between pouring of the melt in the die and application
of pressure and duration of pressure application. Among all the
parameters, the effect of applied pressure and pouring temperature
has been extensively studied [14,17,18], and it is believed that
these two parameters are of signicant inuence on microstructure and mechanical properties. Many researchers have carried
out research work on squeeze casting of aluminum alloy
[17,19,20]. It is proved that squeeze casting can effectively improve
the mechanical properties by enhancing the a-Al solid solution
phase, rening the microstructure and homogenizing the eutectic
phase [21].
6101 aluminum alloy has high strength, excellent thermal and
electrical conductivity, while A356 aluminum alloy has excellent
casting characteristics, high tensile and fatigue properties. A356
aluminum alloy6101 aluminum alloy bimetal can combine their
advantages. Therefore, the present study focused on the realization
of A356 aluminum alloy6101 aluminum alloy bimetal using
squeeze casting method. The effects of surface treatment, pouring
temperature and applied pressure on microstructure and mechanical properties of squeeze cast bimetal were investigated. The
mechanism of interface formation and fracture behavior were
discussed.

2. Materials and methods

remainders on the surface, a procedure which combines several

aluminum surface pre-treatment was developed, including degreasing, alkali erosion, acid pickling, rst zinc treatment, zinc retreatment and second zinc treatment.
The result of the zinc treatment is a zinc layer with the thickness of 300500 nm, because the deposition stops as soon as the
surface is completely covered with zinc and ion-exchange reaction
has no driving force anymore [12]. Electro-plating method was
then operated onto the 6101 aluminum alloy insert in order to further increase the thickness of the zinc layer, the desired thickness
was adjusted by controlling the coating time.
2.2. Compound casting
An 80-ton vertical hydraulic press was used for direct squeeze
casting. The mold was preheated to 250 C. Before casting, the electro-plated 6101 aluminum alloy insert was pre-seated at the bottom of the mold, then A356 liquid metal was poured into the
mold, and solidied under applied pressure. The bimetal sample
was thus produced by squeeze casting method with a dimension
of u 55 mm  50 mm. The process is schematically presented in
Fig. 1.
The casting parameters for bimetals studied in this study are
shown in Table 2. In the rst round, the pouring temperature
and applied pressure were kept at 700 C and 30 MPa respectively,
while the condition of surface treatment of 6101 aluminum alloy
insert varied. In the second round, pouring temperature varied
from 660 C to 740 C, while applied pressure was kept at
30 MPa and 6101 aluminum alloy inserts were all electro-plated
with 5 lm zinc coating. In the last round, the applied pressure varied from 10 MPa to 50 MPa, while pouring temperature was kept at
700 C and 6101 aluminum alloy inserts were all electro-plated
with 5 lm zinc coating.

2.1. Materials and surface treatment

2.3. Metallographic examination
A commercial 6101 aluminum alloy was used as the solid insert
material, before the squeeze casting procedure, the inserts were
cut into rectangular bars with a dimension of 60  10  2.5 mm3.
A commercial A356 aluminum alloy was used as the casting material. The chemical compositions of the materials are tabulated in
Table 1. The tensile strength of as-gravity-cast A356 and 6101
inserts are about 145 MPa and 200 MPa respectively.
The 6101 aluminum alloy was received in rolled condition, in
order to remove the thick lms containing oxides and lubricant

Microstructure samples were prepared with standard

metallographic procedure. The polished samples were further
anodized at 30 V for 30 s in a 2% solution of uoroboric acid.
Table 2
Casting parameters for bimetals.
Round

Surface treatment

Pouring
temperature (C)

Applied
pressure (MPa)

Degreased
Zinc treated
5 lm zinc coating
10 lm zinc coating

700

30

5 lm zinc coating

660
740

30

5 lm zinc coating

700

10
50

Table 1
The chemical compositions of the materials (wt.%).
Alloys

A356
6101

Chemical compositions (wt.%)

Si

Cu

Mg

Mn

Zn

Fe

Ti

Other

Al

7.5
0.49

0.2
0.23

0.4
0.92

0.1
0

0.1
0

0.2
0.45

0.2
0

0
0

0.15
0.1

Bal
Bal

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the mold (a) and the tensile specimens in mm (b).

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T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

Microstructure characterization was carried out with an optical

microscope (OM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The
element distribution was analyzed by energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS) attached to SEM.
2.4. Mechanical testing
Tensile samples for both A356 aluminum alloy matrix and A356
aluminum alloy-6101 aluminum alloy bimetal were taken from
the middle part of the cylindrical sample, then cut into rectangular
tensile specimens according to the ISO 6892-1:2009 standard [22].
The tensile specimen of bimetal had a sandwich structure
(A356, interface region, 6101, interface region, A356) in the gauge
section, which is shown schematically in Fig. 1. Tensile testing was
carried out on a Zwick/Roell-20 kN material test machine at a
strain rate of 8.33  104 s1 at ambient temperature. To insure
repeatability, at least three samples were tested in each testing
condition. Hardness of the bimetal was also measured across the
interface region.
3. Results
3.1. Effect of surface treatment on microstructure and mechanical
properties of bimetal
Surface treatment is the prerequisite factor that determines the
interface formation during the casting procedure [3]. In this paper,
the inuence of surface treatment on microstructure and mechanical properties is investigated.
Fig. 2 shows the microstructures of the interface region of A356
aluminum alloy6101 aluminum alloy bimetals, which were
squeeze cast at pouring temperature of 700 C and applied pressure of 30 MPa, while under different surface treatment conditions.
The SEM micrographs of the interface region along with the corresponding concentration maps of element Si, Zn and O for each sample are presented in Fig. 3. The microstructure of A356 aluminum
alloy shows typical casting aluminum structure consisting of dendritic a-Al phase and uniformly dispersed eutectic Si particles. The
microstructure of 6101 aluminum alloy shows typical wrought
aluminum alloy structure consisting of ne elongated grains.
When the 6101 aluminum alloy insert was degreased, there was
a clear interface between the two materials because of the oxide
layer. The same phenomenon was observed for the bimetal fabricated with the 6101 aluminum insert zinc treated. However, the
interface fractured under the applied pressure and in these fractured spots, metallic bonding formed between A356 aluminum
alloy and 6101 aluminum alloy. When the 6101 aluminum alloy
insert was electro-plated with 5 lm or 10 lm zinc layer, desired
metallic bonding could be realized. It can be observed that along
the interface, there is no aggregation of element O or Zn, and no
defects or discontinuities are detected. There is a 100 lm thick
transition zone in the interface region, the microstructure shows
ne equiaxed grained structure with eutectic Si along the grain
boundaries.
Vickers hardness and Tensile strength were evaluated for bimetal prepared under different surface treatment. As shown in Fig. 4,
the Vickers hardness values of 6101 aluminum alloy and A356 aluminum alloy are in the range of 5565 and 8595 respectively. For
bimetal made under degreased and zinc treated conditions, the
hardness changes abruptly. While for bimetal prepared with
6101 aluminum alloy electro-plated with 5 lm or 10 lm zinc coating, there is a transition zone between the two bonded materials,
whose hardness is 6575. Thus, the Vickers hardness changes
gradually from 5565 to 8595. The tensile strength of bimetals
made under different surface treatment conditions are shown in

Fig. 5. The fractured surfaces and the cross section views of the
fractured specimen are presented in Fig. 6. For bimetal made under
degreased and zinc treated conditions, the A356 aluminum alloy
and 6101 aluminum alloy are partially metallic bonded, the tensile
strengths are very low. While for bimetal made with the 6101 aluminum alloy electro-plated with 5 lm or 10 lm zinc layer, the tensile strength are about 155 MPa. The fracture occurs in the
transition zone along the interface. There is not much difference
in tensile strength when the thickness of zinc coating varied from
5 lm to 10 lm.
3.2. Effect of pouring temperature on microstructure and mechanical
properties of bimetal
In the formation of the metallic bonding between two different
aluminum alloys, the pouring temperature needs to be controlled
precisely. The microstructures of A356 aluminum alloy6101 aluminum alloy bimetals prepared at different pouring temperature
are presented in Fig. 7. The applied pressure was kept at 30 MPa,
and the 6101 aluminum alloy inserts were electro-plated with
5 lm zinc coating. The SEM micrographs of the interface region
along with the corresponding concentration maps of element Si,
Zn and O for each sample are shown in Fig. 8. When the pouring
temperature was low, there was a clear interface between the
two aluminum alloys, beside, element Zn and O tended to aggregate along the interface. When the pouring temperature was high,
the 6101 aluminum alloy inserts would melt into the A356 molten
metal. Only when the pouring temperature was controlled at
around 700 C, the metallic bonding between A356 aluminum
alloy and 6101 aluminum alloy could be realized.
The results of Vickers hardness across the interface and tensile
strength are presented in Figs. 9 and 10 respectively. For bimetal
made at pouring temperature of 660 C, the A356 aluminum alloy
and 6101 aluminum alloy are partially metallic bonded, the Vickers
hardness changes from 5565 to 8595 abruptly and the tensile
strength is about 20 MPa. The desired metallic bonding can be
achieved when the pouring temperature is 700 C, the Vickers
hardness changes gradually across the interface and the tensile
strength is about 155 MPa.
3.3. Effect of applied pressure on microstructure and mechanical
properties of bimetal
Solidication under pressure is the most distinctive feature of
squeeze casting. The effect of applied pressure (ranging from
10 MPa to 50 MPa) on microstructure and mechanical properties
of A356 aluminum alloy6101 aluminum alloy bimetals was
investigated.
Fig. 11 presents the microstructures of interface region for samples made under different applied pressures, which were prepared
at pouring temperature of 700 C, and the 6101 aluminum alloy
inserts were electro-plated with 5 lm zinc coating. Sound metallic
bonding between A356 aluminum alloy and 6101 aluminum alloy
can be realized for all three bimetals. There is no aggregation of
element O or Zn, and no defects or discontinuities are detected.
The results of Vickers hardness for bimetal made under different applied pressure are shown in Fig. 12. As can be observed,
the hardness changes gradually across the interface. The hardness
of 6101 aluminum alloy stays in the range of 5565, the hardness
of transition zone stays in the range of 6575, while the hardness
of A356 aluminum alloy increases gradually with the increase of
the applied pressure. The results of tensile strength are presented
in Fig. 13. With the application of pressure during solidication
process, the tensile strength exhibits more promising results than
that made by gravity casting, for both A356 aluminum alloy matrix
and bimetal. However, with the increase of applied pressure, A356

T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

11

Fig. 2. Microstructures of the interface region of bimetals made at different surface treatment conditions (a and b, degreased, c and d, zinc treated, e and f, 5 lm zinc coating,
g and h, 10 lm zinc coating).

aluminum alloy matrix and bimetal show different behaviors. For

A356 aluminum alloy matrix, the tensile strength increases with
the increase of applied pressure, for bimetal it appears to be independent on the magnitude of the applied pressure and the value
remains steady. In addition, for bimetals made under applied pressure of 0 MPa, the fracture occurs in A356 aluminum alloy part,
while for bimetal made under applied pressure varied from
10 MPa to 50 MPa, fracture occurs in the transition zone (Fig. 6f).
4. Discussion
After pouring the molten metal, A356 aluminum alloy was
brought into contact with the zinc coating rst, then encountered

6101 aluminum alloy inserts after the zinc coating was dissolved
into the molten metal [13]. The surface region of the 6101 aluminum alloy inserts melted partially due to the heat. Then the 6101
aluminum alloy inserts served as the heterogeneous nucleation
substrate for the primary a-Al phase [23,24], undercooling was
developed in the molten metal, a-Al dendrites started to grow
from the 6101 aluminum alloy side towards the A356 aluminum
alloy side, which parallels to heat ow but in the opposite direction. It is believed that the local fusion determines the formation
of a sound metallic bonding [25].
For bimetals made under different surface treatment, the
degreased samples exhibited poor performance because of the
existence of the oxide layer. The same phenomenon was observed

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T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

Fig. 3. SEM micrographs of the interface region along with the corresponding concentration maps of element Si, Zn and O for bimetals made at different surface treatment
conditions (a0a3, degreased, b0b3, zinc treated, c0c3, 5 lm zinc coating, d0d3, 10 lm zinc coating).

Fig. 4. Hardness proles measured across the interface region for bimetals made at
different surface treatment conditions.

Fig. 5. Tensile strength for bimetals made at different surface treatment conditions.

for zinc treated sample, because the 300500 nm thick zinc coating
alone was insufcient. During experiments, the thin zinc layer will
evaporate and reoxidation of the aluminum insert will occur [12].

Electro-plating method was thus introduced to increase the thickness of the zinc layer. Under this condition, metallic bonding can
be successfully produced. For pouring temperature, when operated

T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

13

Fig. 6. Fractured surfaces and the cross section views of the fractured specimens made at different surface treatment conditions (a and b, degreased, c and d, zinc treated, e
and f, 5 lm zinc coating, g and h, 10 lm zinc coating).

at a low value, even the melting of zinc coating could not be

achieved, element Zn and O tended to aggregate along the interface, mechanical bonding would form between A356 aluminum
alloy and 6101 aluminum alloy. When operated at a high value,
the 6101 aluminum alloy insert would severely melt that made it
no longer able to serve as insert material with high strength and
excellent thermal and electrical conductivity. So in order to achieve
the formation of a sound metallic bonding, the 6101 aluminum

alloy inserts need to be zinc coated, the pouring temperature need

to be carefully controlled as well.
It can be observed that signicant improvement of tensile
strength was achieved for A356 aluminum alloy matrix and bimetal when solidied under applied pressure. For A356 aluminum
alloy matrix, the improvement is attributed to the reduction of
shrinkage and gas porosities and the renement of the microstructure [26]. At present, there are usually two theories to explain the

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T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

Fig. 7. Microstructures of the interface region of bimetals made at different pouring temperatures (a and b, 660 C, c and d, 700 C).

Fig. 8. SEM micrographs of the interface region along with the corresponding concentration maps of element Si, Zn and O for bimetals made at different pouring
temperatures (a0a3, 660 C, b0b3, 700 C).

grain renement mechanism in squeeze casting process. First, the

improvement of heat transfer during solidication [27]. It is well
known that an air gap would form during conventional casting
process, when a solid shell forms and shrinks away from the die
by thermal contraction [28]. The air gap is one of the most important factors that control overall solidication behavior [29,30]. The
heat ux can be justied by the simplied equation suggested by
Lee et al. [31]:

K gap
X gap

where Kgap is the average thermal conductivity of the gas in the gap,
Xgap is the gap size. With the application of the pressure during
solidication the gap between the mold and the solidied shell
decreases dramatically. Thus the heat transfer coefcient and the

cooling rate is increased, then there occurs the renement of the

microstructure.
Second, the change of phase diagram under applied pressure
[32]. According to the ClausiusClapeyron equation:

DT f T f V l  V s

DP
DH f

where Tf is the equilibrium freezing temperature, Vl and Vs are the

specic volumes of the liquid and solid respectively, and Hf is the
latent heat of fusion. Substituting the thermodynamics equation
for volume, the effect of pressure on freezing point may roughly
be estimated as follows [33]:



DHf
P P0 exp
RT f

T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

Fig. 9. Hardness proles measured across the interface region for bimetals made at
different pouring temperatures.

where P0, DHf and R are constants. With the increase of pressure P,
Tf should increase, thus inducing a high undercooling compared to
conventional casting process. So when the A356 aluminum alloy
is solidied under pressure, the tensile strength is higher than that
of made by gravity casting.

15

Fig. 10. Tensile strength for bimetals made at different pouring temperatures.

The phase diagram also changes with the application of pressure. Applied pressure has an effect on the equilibrium phase by
shifting the liquidus and solidus lines, and by changing the eutectic
composition. In the AlSi alloy system, the eutectic point is shifted
toward higher concentration of Si as applied pressure increases
[34,35]. As a result, for hypoeutectic AlSi alloy, with the increase

Fig. 11. Microstructures of the interface region of bimetals made at different applied pressures (a and b, 10 MPa, c and d, 30 MPa, e and f, 50 MPa).

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T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

Fig. 12. Hardness proles measured across the interface region for bimetals made
at different applied pressures.

and the hardness value did not change, therefore, to increase the
applied pressure in order to further increase the tensile strength
of bimetal seems to be unnecessary in this circumstance.
It is widely accepted that for aluminumaluminum bimetal, the
tensile fracture will be located in the alloy with lower tensile
strength, while the interface region remains well [2325]. Interestingly, in this study the results were quiet different that the fracture
was located in the transition zone. However, there is no controversy between these two results. Because in the study mentioned
above, the bimetals were received in gravity casting state. The
interface region is solid solution strengthened by the interdiffusion
effect and the microstructure is more compact in transition zone.
During tensile test, fracture occurs when the UTS of the alloy with
lower strength is reached. While in the present study, the bimetal
were prepared with squeeze casting method. The alloy with lower
strength is A356 aluminum alloy, and its tensile strength increased
signicantly because of the applied pressure. The transition zone,
on the other hand, was still received in gravity casting state
because of the high solidication velocity. So during the tensile
test, the crack initiation began with initial fracture of eutectic Si
in the transition zone then extended in the transition zone, while
the A356 aluminum alloy part and 6101 aluminum alloy part
remains well. However, compared with that made by gravity casting, the tensile strength of the bimetal is improved by about 10%.

5. Conclusions
In this study, the A356 aluminum alloy-6101 aluminum alloy
bimetal were successfully fabricated by squeeze casting process.
The effect of surface treatment, pouring temperature and applied
pressure on microstructure and mechanical properties of the bimetal were investigated. The following conclusions were obtained:

Fig. 13. Tensile strength for bimetals and A356 aluminum alloy matrix made at
different applied pressures.

of applied pressure, the amount of eutectic Si decreases. It is

suggested by Yeh and Liu [36] that the mechanical properties of
AlSi base alloys depends on the amount, size and shape of Si. So
the decrease of Si further promotes the increase of tensile strength
of A356 aluminum alloy matrix. At the same time, the intersolubility of constituent Si together with the solubility of impurity
and trace elements is expected to increase with the application of
pressure, which results in the increase of hardness [33].
Interestingly, it can be observed that the tensile strength of
A356 aluminum alloy6101 aluminum alloy bimetal did not
increase with the increasing of applied pressure, and the hardness
value in transition zone did not increase neither. As mentioned
above, the 6101 aluminum alloy served as the heterogeneous
nucleation substrate for primary a-Al phase [23,24]. During the
solidication process, the non-preheated 6101 aluminum insert
material chilled the molten metal around it. Besides, the partially
fusion of the 6101 aluminum insert also absorbed the latent heat
from the molten metal [8,10]. Thus the liquid A356 aluminum alloy
solidied and transition zone formed in a relatively high velocity
that the pressure may have not applied onto the liquid metal. So
with the increase of the applied pressure, the tensile strength

(1) Sound metallic bonding can be produced successfully by

electro-plating a layer of zinc coating on the 6101 aluminum
alloy inserts and carefully control of the squeeze casting
temperature.
(2) With the application of pressure during solidication process, the tensile strength exhibits more promising results
than that made by gravity casting, for both A356 aluminum
alloy matrix and bimetal.
(3) With the increase of applied pressure, A356 aluminum alloy
matrix and bimetal show different behaviors. For A356 aluminum alloy matrix, the tensile strength increases with the
increase of applied pressure because of the reduction of
inherent defects, the renement of microstructure and the
decrease of the amount of eutectic Si. For bimetal it appears
to be independent on the magnitude of the applied pressure
and remains steady.
(4) During the tensile test, the crack initiation begins with initial
fracture of eutectic Si in the transition zone then extends in
the transition zone.
(5) With the increase of pressure, the hardness value of A356
aluminum alloy matrix increases, while the hardness value
of transition zone stays at about 6575.
(6) For bimetal fabricated with squeeze casting method, tensile
strength is improved by about 10%, from 145 MPa to
155 MPa, as compared with that made by gravity casting.

Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support of the
General Motors Company in Pontiac, USA.

T. Liu et al. / Materials and Design 68 (2015) 817

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