Up-grade recycle by consolidating aluminum cutting chip under severe plastic deformation

Cutting chip is, generally, 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, aluminium chips are consolidated by cold severe plastic deformation so that their highly deformed microstructure is utilized for strengthening. 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 aluminium chips have been successfully consolidated by a combination of pressing and swaging. The consolidated chips exhibit superior strength to a wrought alloy together with finer microstructure when compared at a same applied strain. In addition, a simple method is demonstrated effective to eliminate the undesirable effects of oxide film on the surface of the chips, which inevitably causes debonding during loading.