Experimental Investigation on Tribological Behaviour of Copper Diamond Composites

Abstract

In the present study, a range of copper diamond composites were prepared using powder metallurgy. The impact of volume fraction of diamond on tribological behaviour and its effective dispersion with copper powder was studied. Composites containing dispersion of hard particles in a metal matrix are widely used for automotive and other structural applications. Sliding wear has a vital role in the performance of electrical sliding contacts used in electric and electronic devices. Thermal considerations are also equally important for the sustainability of electronic parts. Product life and its reliability of sliding contacts are directly proportional to wear phenomenon. Due to these reasons and to meet the demands of improving thermal properties of materials for electronic components, a new composite material composed of diamond and copper was developed. The ball mill was used for 4 hours at 300 rpm for grinding and blending copper, diamond into fine powder. Being a cost-effective technique, normal sintering and powder metallurgy method were adopted for composite preparation where spark plasma sintering and other techniques were found to be very costly. Diamond was added in different volume fraction (1% wt., 3% wt. and 5% wt.) as reinforcement to analyse the influence of diamond particle concentration, distribution and its particle size on thermal conductivity and wear behaviour. A transmission electron microscope was used to characterize the morphology of powder. XRD analysis was used to identify the crystalline phases present in the composites. A wear test was performed on pin on disk test rig. The wear test illustrated that higher diamond content improves the wear resistance of the composite.