Effect of ultrasonic argon degassing on dissolved hydrogen in aluminium alloy

Ultrasonic degassing has been shown to be a reasonably efficient way of degassing a melt. Similarly, vacuum degassing has also been proven to be beneficial in producing high quality products. However, neither method is sufficiently efficient. Moreover, a combination of these techniques does not respond well to large volumes of melt. In this article, a novel approach, using ultrasonic assisted argon degassing was examined and compared with vacuum and argon degassing. The results indicate that the ultrasonic-argon degassing process is a faster method and can be used for large volumes of melt, thus overcoming the restrictions of the other two methods. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.