Abstract
The growing applications of iron/copper bimetallic composites in various industries are increasing. The relationship between the properties of these materials and manufacturing parameters should be well understood. This paper represents an experimental study to evaluate the effect of reinforcement (steel rod) preheating temperature on the mechanical properties (bond strength, microhardness, and wear resistance) of copper matrix composites (QMMC). In preparing the QMMC samples, the melted copper was poured on a steel rod that had been preheated to various temperatures, namely, room temperature, 600 °C, 800 °C, and 1200 °C. Properties of the QMMC (interface microstructure, interfacial bonding strength, microhardness, and wear) were investigated. The experimental results revealed that the best bond between the copper matrix and steel rod formed only in the composites prepared by preheating the steel rods with temperatures lower than the recrystallization temperature of steel (723 °C). This is because the oxide layer and shrinkage voids (due to the difference in shrinkage between the two metals) at the interface hinder atom diffusion and bond formation at higher temperatures. The microhardness test showed that preheating steel rod to 600 °C gives the highest value among all the samples. Furthermore, the QMMC’s wear behavior confirmed that the optimization of preheating temperature is 600 °C.
Highlights
Copper (Cu)-based materials are an important class of materials because of their good machinability and excellent electrical and thermal properties, making them suitable for a wide range of applications [1]
Metal matrix composites (MMCs) technology offers the possibility of customizing properties of Cu-based materials
The results showed that mechanical and tribological properties of Cu composites reinforced with
Summary
Copper (Cu)-based materials are an important class of materials because of their good machinability and excellent electrical and thermal properties, making them suitable for a wide range of applications [1]. For many applications, pure Cu and its alloys cannot be used because of their relatively low hardness, low strength, as well as inferior tribological properties [2]. Several approaches, including coating with wetting agents and chemical and heat treatments, have improved the interface bonding between Cu matrices and ceramic reinforcements. Those approaches showed promising improvements in the properties of Cu matrix composites, some of them are relatively complex and expensive [13,14,15,16]. Cu matrix composites can be designed with superior mechanical and tribological properties due to their adequate wettability with metal matrices [17]
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