Jiuquan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. successfully developed aluminum alloy cold-rolled strip for electroplating.

"at the beginning of the new year, customers came to sign orders for the whole year, with a steady supply of 300 tons per month." At the production site of Dongxing Aluminum Tiancheng Color Aluminum Co., Ltd., looking at the busy production scene, Li Yanqin, vice minister of the Technology Research and Development Department, is full of confidence. In October 2020, Jiuquan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. successfully developed and produced aluminum alloy cold-rolled strip for electroplating represented by 1-series alloy. with the advantages of good customer feedback and low cost, the products quickly became popular after going offline. Up to now, 1200 tons have been successfully produced.

"this product not only has the advantages of low density of aluminum alloy, good processability and easy recycling, but also has the characteristics of different metals after electroplating." Li Yanqin said that aluminum and its alloys have a low density, and compared with other commonly used metals, materials of the same weight can produce about three times more parts. At present, many manufacturers use aluminum alloy substrates instead of copper and zinc substrates.

Electroplating is the main processing method of aluminum alloy used in hardware, electronics and decoration industries. For example, when aluminum alloy is used as a conductor, silver plating on its surface can improve the electrical conductivity of the metal surface or electrical contact parts; to make aluminum easy to weld, plating copper, nickel or tin on its surface; to improve metal wear resistance, plating thick chromium on its surface. After electroplating various metals on the surface of aluminum alloy, it can obviously improve the physical or chemical properties of the surface, hardness and wear resistance, as well as lubrication, corrosion resistance, optical properties and so on.

In China, about 80% of the production of aluminum alloy for electroplating is hot rolling process. In order to make the products competitive as soon as they were born, Tiancheng Color Aluminum Company decided to adopt the green short process casting-rolling process with great difficulty, low cost and short production cycle.

In the second half of last year, through market research, technical consultation and investigation, the technical staff of the company determined the specific market direction, process route and technical difficulties that need to be broken through in each process of aluminum alloy for electroplating. In order to ensure the one-time success of product trial production, technicians take the enrichment of impurity elements in cast-rolling billet, grain size uniformity control, nozzle flow field distribution, product recrystallization annealing process control and so on as breakthroughs to study the recrystallization mechanism of aluminum alloy products for electroplating, explore and formulate the corresponding annealing process system of finished products, at the same time constantly optimize the process, and strive to improve the uniformity of annealed grains of the products.

With the breakthrough of layer by layer of technical problems, Tiancheng Color Aluminum Co., Ltd. has successfully produced aluminum alloy cold-rolled strip for electroplating, and its processability, microstructure, surface quality and other indexes all meet the requirements of downstream manufacturers.

It is understood that compared with ordinary cold-rolled products, the price of aluminum alloy cold-rolled strip for electroplating is 400 yuan higher per ton. "under the background of fierce competition in the aluminum processing market, through technological innovation and new product research and development, we can improve product performance and quality, enrich product range, provide customers with differentiated, personalized and accurate services, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results." it is the direction of our technicians' continuous exploration and efforts. " Li Yanqin said.