Materials

& Design
Materials and Design 28 (2007) 12381244
www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Characteristic properties of AlCuSiCp and AlCuB4Cp composites

produced by hot pressing method under nitrogen atmosphere
Fevzi Bedir

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Suleyman Demirel University, 32260 Isparta, Turkey

Received 21 July 2005; accepted 5 January 2006
Available online 3 March 2006

Abstract
Hot pressing of powders is more eective consolidation method for producing particulate composites than other producing techniques
because of improving wettability which gives sound parts without pores. The aim of this study is to produce composites of AlCuSiCp
and AlCuB4Cp by using hot pressing method and investigating their characteristic properties. The volume fractions of the reinforced
(SiC, B4C) composites were 10, 20 and 30 (vol%). The composites were treated in solution for 24 h at 530 C to evaluate heat treatment
eect on the composites then aged in oil bath at 180 C for various ageing periods and hardness reached to a maximum value within 8
10 h using Brinnel hardness (HB) tester. In addition, wear resistance of the aged and unaged composite specimens were also investigated
by using a pin-on-disc type apparatus under dry sliding conditions at constant speed using 100, 150 and 220 grade SiC abrasive paper
under constant loads of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 N at room temperature. As a result, the distribution of the reinforced particle was uniform by
examining their microstructures. The hardness and the wear performance of the composite increased with increasing volumetric reinforced particle content. Wear rate increased with 100 grade SiC than 220 SiC grade by additional of the reinforced particulate.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Al-composite; Hot pressing method; Wear

1. Introduction
Aluminium (Al)-based metal-matrix composites
(MMCs) have a very low coecient of thermal expansion
and high specic strengths, wear resistance and heat resistance as compared the conventional Al alloys [13].
Al-MMCs can substitute for steel to some degree when
reinforced with ceramic particulate materials such as SiC,
Al2O3, B4C, TiC [46]. Consequently, they have a great
potential of application in defense and automotive industries [710].
There are two ways to produce MMCs, especially AlMMCs reinforced with ceramic particulates which are
powder metallurgy (PM) and liquid state producing techniques. The advantage of the rst technique is that it can
produce Al-MMCs in which particles are distributed
*

Tel.: +90 246 2111235; fax: +90 246 2370859.

E-mail address: fbedir@mmf.sdu.edu.tr.

0261-3069/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2006.01.003

homogeneously with a density close to the theoretical values [1119]. But, PM technique is complex and includes
dierent operation steps such as mixing and blending of
pre-alloyed powder and reinforcement powder, degassing
under vacuum, consolidation (hot pressing or HIP) and
secondary processing (extrusion or rolling). However,
any additional step in the production of Al-MMCs
increases the cost and hampers their successful
commercialization.
The second technique presents low cost and high performance [7,20,21] which tends to oer more exibility and
can be generally divided into three groups: compo-casting,
rheo-compocasting, and squeeze casting [10,2224]. The
compo-casting method is a casting method which requires
the addition of ceramic particles in the molten metal, followed by stirring and casting. The rheo-compocasting
method is a rapid solidication process, which consists of
re-melting and instantaneous solidication. The squeeze
casting method is also common manufacturing process

F. Bedir / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 12381244

1239

for fabrication of composite. These techniques generally

suer from the below disadvantages:
 non-uniform distribution of ceramic particles due to the
agglomeration and dendritic segregation;
 undesirable chemical reaction at the interface due to the
high temperature of the melt [2528];
 negative pressure occurring during the stirring to create
a vortex. The negative pressure dierential existing at
the vortex sucks the added particles into the liquid phase
creating air bubbles in the solution mixture, and thus
leading to porosities in the cast composites [2730].
For below reasons: an alternative producing method is
proposed in this study. Hot pressing with a little of liquid
phase of powders, a simple and the least complicated powder consolidation method, is used to fabricate Al-MMCs
with homogeneously dispersed particles without porous
structures. By this method, advantages of both powder
metallurgy and liquid state producing techniques are used.
The purpose of the present study is to produce particle
reinforced Al-MMCs. In the study, the microstructure is
examined, hardness of the composite is measured and the
wear resistant is investigated depending on reinforced particle content.

3. Results and discussion

2. Experimental procedure

3.1. Microstructure observation

Almatrix alloys were prepared by blending pure Al powder (average

25 lm particle size) and pure Cu powder (average 63 lm particle size) to
form the Al5 wt%Cu. The aim of Cu powder addition was to form a
liquid phase (in the matrix) and aid in densication during hot pressing.
Composites based on Al5 wt%Cu matrix alloy and containing either
SiC (average 10 lm particle size) or B4C (average 10 lm particle size) powder were mixed with the addition of a small amount of isopropyl alcohol.
The composite powder was lled in a uniaxial die made of X40CrMoV51
(AISI H13) hot work tool steel having a rectangular cross-section of
30 40 mm as shown in Fig. 1. Then, the specimen was heated to
600 C at a rate of 20 C/min, and pressed at 25 MPa constant pressure
under nitrogen atmosphere. The duration of hot pressing was 5 min. In
order to avoid formation of pores, the pressure on the specimen was not
released until the consolidation was nished and the specimen was cooled
down to 300 C.
The specimens cut from the 30 40 mm composite plate, was treated
at 530 C for 24 h to determine the age-hardening behaviour of composites
After cold water quenching, the specimens were transferred into an oil
bath and age-hardened at 180 C for various ageing periodic times: 2, 4,
6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 and 24 h. Hardness values of the specimens were subsequently determined with HB at a load of 62.5 kg. The SEM and optic
microscope was used to examine the matrix alloy and distribution of the
ceramic particles in the composites. Metallographic preparation of the
specimens was done with 600 and 1200 grit papers and polished with
3 lm diamond paste.
The abrasive wear testes of all the specimens were tested using a wear
tester of the pin-on-disc type apparatus under proposed test conditions.
The pin materials cut from the composite plates were ground with 600
and 1200 grit paper to provide all the surfaces of the specimens to contact with the surface of abrasive paper and were cleaned with alcohol
prior to testing. Abrasive wear tests were performed at 2, 4, 6, 8 and
10 N loads pressing on disk on which 100, 150 and 220 abrasive papers
were xed, respectively, under dry sliding conditions. Sliding diameter,
rate and duration were 150 mm, 320 rev/min and 30 s, respectively, in
all tests. A new abrasive paper was used for each abrasive wear test.

The prime important phenomenon in Al-composites is

that Al covered with a thin layer of oxide which blocks
to surface wetting and react with some ceramics to form
inter metallic phase which tent to inuence the nal properties of the composites. In this respect, hot pressing of
powder is one of the most suitable to improve compatibility at interface. The time of contact between reinforcement
and liquid phase is short which limits or blocks the reaction
at the interface under nitrogen atmosphere and improving
the wettability.
The purpose of the mixing of the 5 wt%Cu powders with
Al powders is to form the liquid phase in the composite at
temperatures over the 548 C as seen from AlCu phase
diagram in Fig. 2.
This liquid phase lls the pores inside the composite
under pressure. Fig. 3 shows the microstructure of the
Al5 wt%Cu powder mixture (matrix alloy) after hot pressing at 600 C.
As it can be seen, the original Al powder particle boundaries are visible due to precipitation of CuAl2 phase. At
specic locations, coarser CuAl2 can be seen in Fig. 3.
The formations of these CuA12 precipitates are due to
the presence of a Cu rich liquid phase at 600 C. Al powders are covered with a layer of the CuAl2 phase which
tends to aect the composite properties.
At a second phase of the study, either SiC or B4C powders were mixed with Al5 wt% Cu powder mixture at specic proportions and then hot pressed at 600 C. At low
percentages, the introduction of reinforcing particles into

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the hot pressing process.

Weights of the specimens before and after the wear tests were measured
by an electronic balance which has (0.1 mg) sensitivity to calculate the
wear rates.

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F. Bedir / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 12381244

Temperature ( C)

1000

Liquid

800

660
46.5

600

548
47.5

66.8

400

94.4

+
Cu

60

80

Al

%Al
Fig. 2. AlCu phase diagram.

the matrix alloy did not adversely aect the hot pressing
behaviour of the composites. The reinforcing particles were
homogeneously distributed in a pore free Al5 wt% Cu
matrix. The representative micrographs of Al-composite
having 10 vol%SiC and Al-composite having 10 vol%
B4C are given in Fig. 4. The dark, angular particles in
the micrograph represent the reinforcement phase.
On the other hand, several diculties were encountered
in hot pressing composites with reinforcing particle content
above 30 vol%. A hot pressing temperature of 600 C was
not enough to consolidate Al40 vol%SiC composite. Hot
pressing of SiC-based composites was even more dicult.
A pore free Al40 vol%SiC specimen could not be attained
before increasing the hot pressing temperature to 630 C.
Moreover, liquid leakage through the die could not be
avoided at that temperature. The AlCu phase diagram
as well as the CuAl2 precipitates predicts that the liquid
formed at hot pressing temperatures was rich in Cu. Therefore, any leakage of liquid would also mean that the agehardening potential of Al40 vol%SiC was lost [31,32].
For this reason, this specimen was excluded from studies.
Residual pores could be observed even in successfully hot
pressed samples, Al40 vol%SiC specimens (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4. The representative micrographs of the Al-composites: (a) the SEM

micrograph of the Al10 vol%SiC specimen; (b) the optic micrograph of
Al10 vol%B4C specimen.

3.2. Age-hardening behaviour

Fig. 3. SEM micrograph of the Al5 wt%Cu specimen after hot pressing
at 600 C.

Particle addition in the main matrix increases the strain

energy in the periphery of the particles in the matrix and
these tendencies may be due to the formation of the dislocation at the boundary of the ceramic particles by the difference in the thermo-expansion coecient between the
matrix and ceramic particles during solution treatment

F. Bedir / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 12381244

1241

160

Hardness, HB

120

80
Al-30%SiC
Al-20%SiC
Al-10%SiC
Main matrix

40

Fig. 5. The SEM micrograph of hot pressed Al40 vol%SiC specimen.

Residual porosity can be observed.

0
0

12
16
Time, h

20

24

28

200

160
Hardness, HB

and quenching since a lot of dislocations generate in the

main matrix/particle interface [3336]. Thus, dislocations
cause the composite to increase in hardness because of acting as non-uniform nucleation sites in the interface following the age treatment. It is thought that the higher the
amount of the ceramic particles in the matrix, the higher
the density of the dislocation, and as a result, the higher
the hardness of the composite.
Al matrix composites are generally prepared from prealloyed Al powder, in which the alloying elements are balanced to yield optimum ageing response. In the second
stage of the present study, the age-hardening responses of
the produced composites were investigated. The aim was
to see the level of hardness attained in the hot pressed
Al5 wt% Cu matrix alloy and its reinforced counterparts.
Fig. 6 shows the age-hardening response of composites
after an ageing treatment at 180 C. As it can be seen,
the matrix alloy and the composites seem to respond well
to age-hardening process. The hardness of the Al5 wt%
Cu matrix was increased from approximately 70 to 107
HB within 58 h (Fig. 6). No further change in hardness
was observed, when the ageing period was extended up
to 24 h. In all cases, the hardness of the reinforced composites were higher than the matrix alloy as expected. The Al
30 vol%B4C composite yielded the highest hardness value
of 190 HB, upon ageing 8 h or more. As seen in Fig. 6,
the age hardening curves of AlCuB4C specimens are
not as smooth as AlCu specimen. This scatter in data is
believed to occur due to the presence and distribution of
the reinforcement. It can be stated that the hardness values
attained in this study are comparatively low with respect to
that of commercial Al alloys. A possible reason may be due
to uneven distribution of the Cu. However, it is believed
that the ageing response of hot pressed specimens can be
contributed to the strength level of these composites.
As far as the age hardening of SiC-based composites
concerned, they yielded lower hardness values with respect
to B4C based ones at equivalent reinforcement content. As
it can be seen, the hardness values of the Al30 vol%SiC
specimen are substantially lower in comparison to Al
30 vol%B4C specimen throughout the ageing cycle. At the

120

80

Al-30%B4C
Al-20%B4C
Al-10%B4C
Main matrix

40

0
0

10

20

30

Time, h

Fig. 6. Age-hardening behaviors of the composites: (a) AlSiC at 180 C;

(b) AlB4C at 180 C.

moment, the reason for the lower hardness values of Al

SiC composites were not understood well. Among a number of possible reasons, the dierent hardness levels or
the wetting properties of the reinforcing phases can be
mentioned as a cause of this. The poor wettability of SiC
by liquid Al was also evident during hot pressing experiments in the present study. In hot pressing of SiC composites, several diculties were encountered. It was quite
dicult to control the process. At low hot pressing pressures, the densication was not complete. On the other
hand, increasing the pressure caused liquid leakage out of
the die. However, as far as AlB4C composites are concerned, a liquid rejection from the system was never
observed. Being rich in Cu, this liquid leakage may be
responsible from the poor ageing characteristics of hot
pressed AlSiC composites. In view of these results, it
can be stated that a conventional hot pressing of AlB4C
composites can be eective for the composites containing
high volume fractions of reinforcements. Also, hot pressing
under nitrogen atmosphere, instead of expensive vacuum
pressing can be another advantage for processing of
cheaper composites, where mechanical properties are not
so critical. However, it must be noted that the proper selection of the reinforcing phase seems to be critical to obtain

1242

F. Bedir / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 12381244

0.8

0.8

Wear rate, mm /mm

at 4 N load

0.4
0.2

Main matrix
Al-10%SiC
Al-20%SiC
Al-30%SiC

0.7

0.6

w orn over 100 G abrasive

"w orn over 150 G abrasive
"aged 10 h and w orn over 100 G abrasive
"w orn over 220 G abrasive
"aged 10 h and w orn over 150 G abrasive
"aged 10 h and w orn over 220 G abrasive

wear rate, mm /mm

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

0
0

10
20
Volumetric fraction, %SiC

30

w orn over 100 G abrasive

w orn over 105 G abrasive
w orn over 220 G abrasive
aged 10 h and w orn over 100 G abrasive
aged 10 h and w orn over 150 G abrasive
aged 10 h and w orn over 220 G abrasive

at 8 N load
1.2

0.6
0.4
0.2

10

12

10

12

Main matrix

Al-10% B 4 C

0.8

0.8

Wear rate, mm /mm

Load, N

1.4

Wear rate, mm /mm

Al-20% B 4 C
Al-30% B 4 C

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0

10

20

30

Volumetric fraction, % B4 C

Fig. 7. Wear rate change of the composite against to volumetric fraction

of the reinforced ceramic particles: (a) wear response of AlCuSiC
composite depending on the %SiC; (b) wear response of AlCuB4C
composite depending on the %B4C.

sound specimens with the hot pressing conditions described

here. Further research is planned to apply the same hot
pressing parameters to AlAl2O3 light-weight composites.
3.3. Wear tests
Almatrix composites consist of soft ductile matrix alloy
and hard ceramic particle in the matrix which results in the
improvement in the strength. This may be attributed to
large residual stress developed during solidication and
age hardening, and to the generation of a dense dislocations due to mismatch of thermal expansion between hard
ceramic particles and soft Al matrix. The hard ceramic particles obstruct the advancing dislocation front, thereby
strengthening the matrix [24,3336]. General opinion is
that wear rate of the composite depends on the microstructural properties as well as loading-contact situation. If the
composite shows lower weight loss, indicating the benecial eect of the addition of the ceramic particles this can
be attributed to hardness of the material which is a dominating factor aecting the wear resistance and presence of
reinforced particle.

Load, N

Fig. 8. Wear rate change of the composite against to applied load wear
rates of the: (a) AlCu/SiC composite, 10 h aged and abraded over 220
abrasive paper; (b) wear rates of the AlCu/B4C composite, 10 h aged and
abraded over 100 abrasive paper.

The wear rates of the both composite solutions, which

are aged and unaged were determined under three wear
conditions which were performed with 100, 150 and 220
grades of SiC abrasive paper and volumetric wear rates
of the composites for three wear conditions were calculated
and plotted in Figs. 7 and 8 as a function of volume fraction of ceramic particles and loads, respectively.
Fig. 7 indicates the variation of the volumetric wear
rates for the composites as a function of volumetric fraction of particles. The wear rate decreased more than the
wear on 100 grade SiC compared to the wear on 220
SiC grade with the addition of reinforcement. This dierence between wear rates, performed with 100, 150 and 220
grades is then due to the dierent type of the wear mechanism [42]. The wear rates decreased with increasing volume fraction as shown in Fig. 7. But the increase in the
volume fraction beyond approximately 15% produced
only a small decrease in the wear rate. Similar results were
observed in previous work carried by Sahin where continuous bres were used as the reinforcement and the critical

F. Bedir / Materials and Design 28 (2007) 12381244

volume fraction of bre was found to be about 16%

[36,37].
Fig. 8 shows the variation of volumetric wear rates for
the particulate composites and matrix alloy as a function
of applied load. It is obvious in the Fig. 8 that the wear rate
of the main alloy was more than that of both AlCuSiC
composites and AlCuB4C composite at all load conditions. During the abrasion, protrusions of the ceramic particles on the worn surface showed more resistance to
abrasion in order to reduce wear rate. In the same way,
inter metallic phases in the matrix alloy produced during
age hardening treatment have also similar resistant eects
to the abrasion [38,39].
At constant speeds, the volumetric wear rate increased
nonlinearly when the load increased. However, this
increase for the matrix alloy was higher than the composites. At the higher test load, the test specimens underwent
severe wears, and hence the wear rates increased more
than that of the lower test load. The same results were
observed by many researchers in previous studies
[30,4043].
4. Conclusions
1. An alternative with composite producing method was
proposed in this study. Hot pressing of powders, a simple and the least complicated powder consolidation
method, was used to fabricate Al-MMCs with homogeneously dispersed particles with sound structure without
pores. But some diculties were encountered in the hot
pressing composites above 30% reinforcement content.
2. The age-hardening responses of the composites at
180 C and hardness curves reveal a gradual, continuous
increase both in the composite and matrix alloy.
3. The wear rate decreased with increasing volume fraction but the increase in the volume fraction beyond
approximately 15% produced only a small decrease in
the wear rate, showing insensitivity to volume fraction
beyond 15% to maximum content of the 30%. During
the abrasion, protrusions of the ceramic particles on
the worn surface showed more resistance to abrasion
to reduce wear rate. In the same way, inter metallic
phases in the matrix alloy produced during age hardening treatment have also similar resistance eects to the
abrasion.

Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the Research Fund Project
No. 03-M-750 of Suleyman Demirel University. Author
thanks to Research Council of the SDU.
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