Effect of Laser Surface Heat Treatment on Wear and Hardness Resistance of Metal Matrix Composite from (Al- 6061+ SiC Particles)

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of laser surface heat treatment on wear resistance and hardness of an aluminum alloy Al-6061 as a base material with different ratios of SiC particles as an additive was studied. The composite material was prepared from Al-6061 aluminum alloy and particles with a granular size of (10-70) μm with different weight ratios (15%, 12%, 9%, 6%, 3%), where the stirred plumbing technique was used to ensure An increase in the wettability of SiC particles in the base alloy fuse and the possibility of distributing it uniformly. The laser surface heat treatment of the composite material prepared using the Neodymium - YAG laser was performed with a power of 1J, a wavelength of 1.06 μm, a pulse time of 5 m sec, and a distance of 30 cm between the exit area of the laser from the system and the piece to be thermally treated. The results showed an improvement in the mechanical properties of the prepared composite material (hardness, wear resistance) after performing the surface heat treatment by laser. The increase in the hardness amount was 12.9% when adding 15% of particles to the base alloy. The results showed that the wear rate value decreases with increasing the added percentages of SiC particles. The results also showed that the surface heat treatment of the laser led to an improvement in the wear resistance of the prepared composite material and for all the added ratios of SiC particles at different loading pressures used and in close proportions. Also, the prepared samples were photographed using a regular optical microscope before and after the laser surface heat treatment.