Creation of aluminum alloy by severe plastic deformation of cutting chip and its mechanical properties

Cutting chip is, generally, separated from cutting oil and then remelted for recycling solely as raw materials. In terms of microstructures, however, the cutting chip may be identified utilizable due to highly-accumulated strain during its formation. In this study, aluminum chips are consolidated by cold severe plastic deformation so that their highly deformed microstructure is utilized for the strengthening of an aluminum alloy. After a preliminary investigation in which a variety of cutting processes and conditions are examined to find the optimum one for the present purpose, the aluminum chips have been successfully consolidated by a combination of pressing and swaging. The consolidated chips exhibit superior strength together with finer microstructure to a wrought alloy when compared at a same applied strain. In addition, a couple of methods are demonstrated effective to eliminate the undesirable effects of oxide film on the surface of the chips, which inevitably causes debonding during loading.