Theoretical and experimental investigation of the compression capability of metal chips in different mold geometries

The metal chips to be recycled are compressed into briquettes in circular molds in order to increase the charge quality and facilitate storage and logistics activities before melting. In this study, the effect of different die geometries on the compaction ability of AISI 1040, AA7075 and Ms62 chips was investigated. Die geometry, chip size, chip amount and force amount were determined as factors affecting the compaction process. Three levels were considered appropriate for each factor. Depending on the number of factors and levels, the experimental design was made with the Taguchi method. Each combination of experiments in the design was repeated three times, and the average intensity values were found by taking the average of the intensities of these three repetitions. With the regression method, density equations suitable for all sample compositions and depending on the force factor were created. It was found that the highest value of the volumetric fill rate was found in the hexagonal mold with 39% for AISI 1040 chips, in the square mold with 19.43% for AA7075 chips and in the circular mold with a value of 41.90% for Ms62.When the net pressure values obtained by creating the equation were compared, it was determined that the circular mold gave 5% better results than the square mold and 11% better results than the hexagonal mold. In addition, according to the strain energy data obtained from the Abaqus software, it was observed that the highest strain energy was 3090.99 mJ in the circular mold.