Investigations of Al–SiC AMC prepared by vacuum moulding assisted stir casting

Abstract

The dry sliding wear is one of the most important properties of metal matrix composite to highlight the performance of the material. In this research work an attempt has been made for improving dry sliding wear properties of aluminium matrix composite (AMC) consisting of Al-6063 matrix and SiC reinforcement prepared through vacuum moulding assisted stir casting (VMASC) as process development for various industrial applications. The study of VMASC for preparing AMC highlights the novel method (being a green process) for improving the material performance.The controllable process parameters of stir casting (namely: particle size of solute (SiC), proportion of SiC) and vacuum moulding process (namely: vacuum pressure and sand grain size) were studied to find out their affect on wear properties of AMC.Wear was examined on ‘pin-on-disc type tribological tester’. The results of the study highlights that as regards to dry sliding wear; sand grain size, vacuum pressure, particle size, and proportion of SiC; have contributed 5.95%, 10.14%, 10.71% and 73.2%, respectively. The improvement in material performance of the AMC prepared by using VMASC was counter verified with microstructure analysis.