J. Mater. Sci. Technol., Vol.21 No.

5, 2005

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Reactive Diusion Bonding of SiCp/Al Composites by Insert Powder Layers with Eutectic Composition
Jihua HUANG , Yueling DONG, Jiangang ZHANG, Yun WAN and Guoan ZHOU
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
[Manuscript received July 29, 2004, in revised form January 19, 2005]

Mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders were investigated as insert layers to reactive diusion bond SiCp/6063 metal matrix composite (MMC). The results show that SiCp/6063 MMC joints bonded by the insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders have a dense joining layer of high quality. The mass transfer between the bonded materials and insert layers during bonding leads to the hypoeutectic microstructure of the joining layers bonded by both the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders with eutectic composition. At xed bonding time (temperature), the shear strength of the joints by both insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders increases with increasing the bonding temperature (time), but get maxima at bonding temperature 600 C (time 90 min). KEY WORDS: Reactive diusion bonding; Insert powder layer; SiCp/Al metal matrix composites

1. Introduction SiCp reinforced aluminium metal matrix composites (SiCp/Al MMCs) have a unique combination of mechanical and physical properties, such as high specic strength and specic modulus of elasticity, low thermal expansion coecient and high wearing resistance, and are expected to be widely used in aerospace engineering, automotive industry, electronic packaging, medical appliances, etc. It is well known that joining is the indispensable processing for industrial applications of any material. Up to now, the majority of joining processes including fusion welding[16] , diusion bonding[7,8] and brazing[9,10] have been investigated to join SiCp/Al MMCs. Because of the specic characteristics in composition and microstructure, however, SiCp/Al MMCs display a bad join-ability. In fusion welding (TIG, MIG, EBW and LBW etc.), the SiC reinforcing particles with high fusion point cause the welding pool to be viscous and have a poor uidity, and some weld defects, such as incomplete backll, slag inclusions, blow holes and SiC segregations form in welded joints. Moreover, serious reaction between Al matrix and SiC particles will occur in the welding pool[16,11] . Diffusion bonding can join materials without melting them during bonding. It should be an eective joining process for the heterogeneous composite materials, especially the ceramic particle reinforced MMCs like the SiCp/Al MMCs. Unfortunately, the stable aluminium oxide lm and the exposed SiC particles on surface of the composites hinder atom diusion and interfacial bonding during diusion bonding. The direct solid diusion bonding of the SiCp/Al MMCs need a large pressure, being veried to be dicult. As for the brazing of SiCp/Al MMCs, a fatal weakness is the low strength of the brazed joints. An eective process for joining SiCp/Al MMCs is reactive diusion bonding (RDB) or reactive brazing (RB), which is also classied as transient liquid phase (TLP) diusion bonding by some investiga Prof., to whom correspondence should be addressed, E-mail: jihuahuang47@sina.com.

tions[12,13] . In the strict sense, however, there is a difference between RDB and the common TLP in the way obtaining the liquid phase during bonding. Usually, TLP obtains the liquid phase by an insert alloy layer with low fusion point, while, RDB bases on eutectic reactions, whose liquid phase forms from the eutectic reaction between the insert layer and the material to be bonded or the elements in the insert layer. In RDB and TLP, the liquid phase can hasten mass transfer at the interface between the bonded material and insert layer, especially the eutectic reaction during RDB is benecial to removing the oxide lm on surface of the bonded materials. Therefore, the SiCp/Al MMCs can be joined by RDB at lower temperature and pressure. Until now, however, only the metal insert layers in the shape of foil, such as Cu foil, Ag foil, etc., have been used for reactive diusion bonding of the SiCp/Al MMCs[12] , which have limitations on the bonded structures, being only suitable to bond some simple structures. To explore a possible RDB process to surmount the limitations of the existing RDB process by foil metal insert layers on the bonded structures, in this work, mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders were employed to replace the foil metals as insert layers for reactive diusion bonding of SiCp/Al MMCs. Si and Cu were used as the eutectic reaction elements for RDB because Si and Cu are common alloying elements in aluminium alloys. In addition, the Si in the liquid phase formed by the eutectic reaction during RDB is helpful in alleviating the interfacial reaction between Al matrix and SiC particles[2] . 2. Experimental The composite material to be bonded in this work was 15 vol. pct SiCp reinforced 6063 aluminium alloy matrix composite (SiCp/6063 MMC), which was cut into samples with the dimension of 15 mm10 mm5 mm. The particle sizes of the Al, Si and Cu powders as the reactive constituents of insert layers were 200, 200, 300 mesh, respectively. The Al, Si and Cu powders were mixed with ethanol to prepare slurry of 87.4Al+

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Fig.1 SEM micrographs of a typical SiCp/6063 MMC joint bonded by reactive diusion of insert layer of mixed Al-Si powder: (a) low magnication, (b) high magnication view of the joining layer in (a)

Fig.2 X-ray diraction patterns of SiCp/6063 MMC joints reactive diusion bonded by insert layer of mixed Al-Si powder (a), and Al-Cu powder (b)

12.6Si and 66.8Al+33.2Cu (in wt pct), respectively. The insert layers for bonding were prepared by coating the slurry on the surfaces of the SiCp/6063 MMC samples to be bonded. The reactive diusion bonding was performed at 580605 C for 15120 min under a low pressure of 3103 MPa and a vacuum of 3.8103 Pa. 3. Results and Discussion Figure 1 is the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs (back-scattered electron images) of a typical SiCp/6063 MMC joint bonded by reactive diusion of insert layer of the mixed Al-Si powder. In Fig.1(a), it can be seen that a dense joint is formed by the eutectic reaction of Al and Si during bonding, and the interfaces between the bonded materials and the joining layer have a good bond. The high magnication view of the joining layer in Fig.1(b) and the X-ray diraction pattern in Fig.2(a) show that the joining layer by mixed Al-Si powder has a typical hypoeutectic microstructure, although the insert layer is designed in Al-Si eutectic composition. It is indicated that besides the Al added as the reactive constituents of the insert layer, some Al atoms from the bonded composite dissolve into the joining layer. Figure 3 shows the back-scattered SEM images of a SiCp/6063 MMC joint bonded by reactive diusion of insert layer of the mixed Al-Cu powder. In the same illustration, the distribution of elements in joining layer is also given. The line segment perpendicular to the joining layer in Fig.3(a)

shows the position and range of linear scanning for the composition analysis. Figure 3(a) exhibits that the AlCu insert layer strongly reacts with the bonded composites. In fact, the distribution of elements in the joining layer shown in Fig.3(b) conrms an intense mass transfer between the bonded materials and insert layer during bonding; Cu diuses from the insert layer to the bonded materials, and Al from the bonded materials dissolves into the insert layer. As a result, the joining layer is also found to have a hypoeutectic microstructure, which consists of Al and Al-Cu intermetallics, as shown in Fig.2(b) and the high magnication view of Fig.3(c). Moreover, SiC diraction pattern is detected in both Fig.2(a) and (b) besides hypoeutectic. Because no SiC is observed in the joining layers (Figs.1(b) and 3(c)), the peaks of SiC (Fig.2) should arise from the bonded materials. The eects of bonding parameters (bonding temperature and time) on the shear strength of the SiCp/6063 MMC joints bonded by reactive diusion of insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders are given in Fig.4. In Figs.1(a) and 3(a), the joining layer by mixed Al-Cu powder shows a better bond to the composites than that by mixed Al-Si powder. However, it is found in Fig.4 that the joints reactive diusion bonded by insert layer of the mixed Al-Si powder have the highest shear strength. The brittleness of the hypoeutectic containing Al-Cu intermetallics is considered to be responsible for the low shear strength of the joints bonded by reactive diusion of insert layer of the mixed Al-Cu powder. At xed bonding time, both the shear strength of the joints

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Fig.3 SEM micrographs of a typical SiCp/6063 MMC joint bonded by reactive diusion of insert layer of mixed Al-Cu powder: (a) low magnication view, (b) distribution of the elements in the joining layer, (c) high magnication view

Fig.4 shear strength of the joints bonded by reactive diusion of insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders vs bonding parameters: (a) bonding temperature (bonding time 90 min), (b) bonding time (bonding temperature 595 C)

by insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders increases as the bonding temperature rises, but reaches maxima at bonding temperature of 600 C. Conversely, at xed bonding temperature, the shear strength of the joints by insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders increase with increasing the bonding time, and reaches a maximum shear strength at the bonding time of 90 min. 4. Conclusions (1) Mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders can be used as insert layers to reactive diusion bonding of SiCp/Al MMCs. The SiCp/6063 MMC joints bonded by insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders have a dense joining layer with high quality. The mass transfer between the bonded materials and insert layers during bonding leads to the hypoeutectic microstructure of the joining layers bonded by both insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders with eutectic composition. (2) At xed bonding time, the shear strength of the joints by insert layers of the mixed Al-Si and Al-Cu powders increases with increasing the bonding temperature, and gets maxima at bonding temperature of 600 C and time of 90 min.
Acknowledgement This work was supported by the National Natural Science

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