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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Metallic matrix composites (MMC) have been fabricated using Mg-AZ91 alloy and TiC as reinforcement
Received 13 April 2010 by pressureless infiltration technique. The composites were worn against different AISI 4140, AISI 1045
Received in revised form 4 November 2010 and H13 steels. Wear resistance was evaluated under dry sliding condition at different loads. Chemical
Accepted 20 November 2010
analyses have shown the creation during the test of different oxides corresponding to the elements
Available online 27 November 2010
present in the composite. Generalized wear mechanisms of the composites are basically type abra-
sion–adhesion. The wear resistance in all cases was better in the Mg AZ91E alloy than in the composite
Keywords:
MgAZ91E/TiCp.
A. Metal matrix composites (MMCs)
B. Wear
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Mechanical testing
E. Powder processing
Metal matrix composites have been studied widely in recent MMC composites were produced by capillary spontaneous infil-
years, essentially due to their promising advanced properties. Spe- tration of TiC porous performs, mixing 56% volume of TiC and 44%
cific attention has been focused to aluminum and magnesium as of alloy Mg AZ91 (Table 1). TiC samples were prepared using
matrices which are widely used in metallic matrix composites 1.3 lm average grain sizes TiC powders, using an uniaxial pressure
(MMC) [1–3]. The advantages of magnesium and its alloys used of 75 kg/cm2, resulting dimensions of 65 10 10 mm rectangu-
as composite’s matrix among others are the high specific strength lar bar. The samples were sintered at 1250 °C for 1 h, after that,
and stiffness, good damping capacities, dimensional stability [4– infiltration was carried out at 950 °C for 12 min, both processes
11]. The mechanical and tribological behavior of the MMC’s has were performed under argon atmosphere. There are interfacial
been studied extensively. Some information concerning to the reactions between matrix and reinforcement, where chemical
wear behavior of Mg-based MMCs reveals that tribological proper- reactions are important to define the porosity and the adhesion be-
ties of Mg alloys can be improved by the addition of hard ceramic tween reinforcement and matrix.
fiber or particulate reinforcement [9,12–17]. The open porosity was evaluated after infiltration; the compos-
The primary aim of this study is to investigate the sliding wear ite shows a 0.25 open porosity and 2.86 for the total porosity. The
behavior of the matrix alloy and Mg AZ91/TiCp composite perhaps porosity was evaluated by ASTM C20-97.
for potential automotive applications such as brake assemblies, Wear composite specimens were cut from bars, with a dimension
although the metal matrix composites are candidate materials of 5 5 15 mm. The specimen surfaces were ground, using sand
for lightweight armors and protective coatings for defense and paper 600 grit. A conventional pin-on disk wear system was em-
aerospace applications as well as electronic packaging applica- ployed to evaluate the wear behavior of the pin samples under
tions. Until now no clear information is available concerning the two different loads, at constant disk rotation of 200 rpm. The pin
wear properties of Mg MMCs reinforced with a high concentration samples were worn against an AISI-1018, AISI H-13 and AISI 4140
of TiC particles. steel discs with a bulk hardness of 26 ± 2, 40 ± 3 and 56 ± 1 HRC,
respectively. The applied normal loads over the pin samples were
0.5 and 1.0 MPa, simulating a friction system. The resultant worn
surfaces of the specimens were observed in a scanning electron
microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive spectroscopy
(EDS) system for determination of the oxygen ratios on the surfaces.
The curves obtained from the experiments were evaluated in order
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +52 777 329 7984. to identify the operating wear mechanism. The approximate
E-mail address: faye12@uaem.mx (I. Rosales). hardness value of the reinforcement TiC is 3200 kg/mm2.
1359-8368/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2010.11.012
276 L. Falcon-Franco et al. / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 275–279
Table 1
Chemical composition of the alloy Mg AZ91.
Elements Al Zn Mn Ni Cu Fe Si Mg
Weight% 8.80 0.71 0.19 <0.001 0.002 0.001 0.029 Bal.
3.1. Microstructures
Fig. 3. Weight losses for worn samples (composite and alloys) At 1.0 MPa.
Fig. 5. (a) Worn surface of the alloy showing oxide formation. (b) Worn surface of
the alloy with oxides agglomeration.
Table 2
Wear factor for samples at different conditions.
Table 3
Friction coefficient of worn samples under different loads against different steels.
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
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