Fabrication and Bending Strength of Al/SiC Composites with High Volume Fraction of Reinforcement by Combining Powder Injection Molding and Pressure Infiltration

Abstract

The paper presents the result of an experimental investigation on the fabrication of Al/SiC composites with high volume fraction of SiC particles by pressure infiltration of liquid aluminum into preforms prepared by powder injection molding (PIM). To obtain the required high particle volume fraction, SiC powders with a bimodal particle size distribution were used. The influence of powder loading and particle size on the bending strength of the prepared composites has been investigated. It is demonstrated that pressure infiltration permits to achieve high relative densities for the composites (i.e. 98.8%). The microstructure studies revealed a uniform distribution of SiC particles in the composites without interface reactions between the particles and the aluminum matrix. The bending strength increases with increasing powder loading and decreasing particle size of the coarse powders in the bimodal powder system.