Production and Investigation of New Cast Aluminium Alloy with Lithium Addition

Lithium additions to Al offer the promise of substantially reducing the weight of alloys, since each 1 wt. % Li added to Al reduces density by 3 % and increases elastic modulus. In the present work, the effect of 1.46 wt. % Li addition to AlSi7Mg (containing 7.05 wt. % Si and 0.35 wt. % Mg) was studied. The alloy showed reduced density and higher hardness after natural ageing. Experimental work showed that micro-structural and mechanical properties changed with Li addition. It was observed that 0.80 wt. % Li addition resulted in formation of new phase AlLiSi which has a great effect to increase hardness of AlSi7Mg. According to Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analysis it was confirmed that the addition of Li causes formation of different phases which are: α-Al, β-Si and AlLiSi.