Executive Summary : | Aluminium (Al) is a lightweight and energy-efficient structural material with significant potential in the automotive and aerospace industries. With the increasing use of Al in manufacturing, a large quantity of Al chips and scraps are generated daily, which need to be recycled to reduce their impact on the economy and environment. Remelting-based liquid state manufacturing processes are cost-effective and suitable for mass production, but the tendency of oxidation increases when Al is in a molten state. Therefore, remelting is often integrated with several stages of pre and post processing, increasing recycling time and cost. The present work focuses on developing a novel Al recycling technology that transforms Al chips and scraps into high-performance wrought plates/sheets in fewer manufacturing steps. The new manufacturing route is a hybrid process involving simultaneous action of melting under microwave radiation followed by liquid state extrusion. This process impacts oxide layer dissolution, fragmentation into small pieces, and uniform distribution throughout the molten Al. The presence of uniformly distributed nano/ultrafine Al2O3 particles acts as nucleation sites for recrystallization during semi-liquid extrusion. The end product is high-performance Al matrix Al2O3 reinforced nano composites, which have excellent strength-ductility combination and high wear resistance. The new innovative manufacturing process reduces manufacturing time and cost by almost half. |