AK6 is a forgeable high strength aluminium alloy and used for manufacturing wheel of main battle tank (MBT) by forging from cast ingots and by counter pressure casting process,I wish to know the comparison of mechanical properties and service life comparison of AK6 al-alloy wheels.
Both forged and counter-pressure cast Al alloy wheels are likely to have fairly mediocre properties, or, more importantly, unreliable properties in terms of unexpected failure by fracture or fatigue. Corrosion and possibly stress corrosion are also unfortunately possibilities, although I do not know whether your AK6 alloy is prone to such failure modes.
All Al alloys appear to suffer from bifilm defects. These are cracks which are introduced into the liquid metal during the melting and casting operations, especially if the metal is poured. Thus the forging suffers from the turbulence during the casting of the initial ingots, and the counter-pressure casting suffers from the pouring of metal into the pressurised furnace, plus also may suffer from the presence of oxides from the skin of the charge materials or from bubble degassing of the melt.
The bifilm cracks in suspension in the liquid metal can be removed or at least reduced in number by several techniques, particularly sedimentation. Filtering is only poorly effective. I recommend my Complete Casting Handbook 2nd Edition 2015 and Mini Casting Handbook 2017 available from Amazon.co.uk (not from the US Amazon.com).
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