THE ASSESSMENT OF CASTINGS QUALITY USING SELECTED QUANTITATIVE METHODS

Aluminium alloys represent an important category of materials due to their high technological value and wide range of applica-tions. The alloys of the Al-Si-Cu system have become increasingly important in recent years, mainly in automotive industry that uses secon-dary aluminium (recycled) in the form of various motor mounts, pistons, cylinder heads, heat exchangers, air conditioners due to their high strength at room and high temperature. This work deals with possibilities of quick and correct assessment of aluminium castings microstruc-ture, especially focused on volume, size and shape of structural parameters – eutectic Si and intermetallic phases different chemical composi-tions. These structural parameters affect the properties of castings and it is important to study their features. The features were studied by using image analyser software NIS Elements.