Abstract
Friction extrusion (FE) is a novel solid-state process for synthesis and recycling of metals and alloys. The novelty of FE is that it utilizes the frictional heating and extensive plastic deformation intrinsic in the process to stir, mechanically alloy, consolidate, and convert powders, chips, and other recyclable feedstock metals into a usable product form of highly engineered materials. FE represents a potentially transformational sustainable manufacturing technology. Being a solid-state process, it eliminates the energy-intensive melting and solidification steps, which are necessary in the conventional metal recycle and synthesis processes. Therefore, FE is a highly energy-efficient, practically zero-emission, and economically competitive process. In this work, the concept and configuration of FE are introduced, the energy-saving advantage of FE is analyzed, the feasibility of FE is demonstrated with synthesizing Al alloys, and the results of some metallographic and mechanical properties studies are presented. A prognosis of the friction extrusion technology is outlined.
