Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Reinforcement Particles on the Forgeability and the Mechanical Properties of Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites

Abstract

The wide choice of materials, today’s engineers are posed with a big challenge for the right selection of a material and as well as the right selection of a manufacturing process for an application. Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites is a relatively new material among all the engineering materials. It has proved its position in automobile, aerospace, and many other engineering applications due its wear resistance properties and due to its substantial hardness. One of the most important criteria is forgeability by which the workability of the material can be determined. The nature of distribution of reinforcing phase in the matrix greatly influenced the properties of Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites. The forgeability of Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites, which are produced by powder metallurgy method, are greatly depends on the size and percentage of reinforcement materials, compacting load, sintering temperature and soaking time etc. In this present work, the forgeability of Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites reinforced with silicon carbide (400 meshes) has investigated. A comparison have been made with different types of Aluminum Silicon Carbide Metal Matrix Composite materials contains 0%5%,10%,15%&20% by weight of silicon carbide. The mechanical properties like hardness of the different composites have also investigated. It is observed that the forgeabilty of the composites decreases with increasing the wt% of SiC but the mechanical properties like hardness enhanced on increasing the wt% of SiC.