FABRICATION OF Al-SiCp COMPOSITES THROUGH POWDER Metallurgy Process and Testing Of Properties

Metal matrix composites are the class of composite materials finding vast applications in automotive, aircraft, defense, sports and appliance industries. A horizontal ball mill has been fabricated for milling of aluminum and SiC particles. The change in powder particle morphology during mechanical alloying of Aluminum and SiC powders using horizontal ball mill was studied. Al-SiCp composites with 5 to 30 weight % of SiCp were fabricated using powder metallurgy process. The various properties viz. hardness, density, porosity, compressive strength, indirect tensile strength and surface roughness were measured. The density, porosity, hardness, compressive strength and indirect tensile strength of Al-SiCp composites were found to increase with increase in the wt. % of SiCp from 5 to 30 weight percent. Mechanical alloying of powders resulted in improvement in hardness and compressive strength of Al-SiCp composites with 5 to 30 weight % of SiCp. The microstructure of polished and etched surfaces of powder metal Al-SiCp composite samples was studied using scanning electron microscope.