50 Years of Foundry-Produced Metal Matrix Composites and Future Opportunities

Abstract

This is the Golden Anniversary paper of the 1969 AFS paper “Dispersion of Graphite Particles in Aluminum Castings through Injection of the Melt.” This paper reviews the progress in cast metal matrix composites (MMCs) over 50 years. Property motivation and current use of MMC components in automotive, railways, space, computer hardware, and recreational equipment are presented. Information on the MMC industry including the total volume of major producers of cast MMCs is listed. Some cast MMCs discussed include aluminum–graphite, aluminum–silicon carbide, aluminum–alumina, and aluminum–fly ash. Current and future directions in cast MMCs, including the manufacture of foundry-produced nanocomposites, functionally gradient materials, syntactic foams, self-healing, and self-lubricating composites, are presented. Recent progress in the manufacture of lightweight self-lubricating cylinder liners for compressors, piston, and rotary engines in Al–graphite and Al–graphite–SiC composites are discussed. Future foundry-produced prospects of MMCs are presented.