Mechanical and chemical behavior of sintered 6061 powder Aluminium Alloy reinforced with CuAl2 particles

Abstract

A 75 μm 6061 powder Aluminum Alloy (A.A) plus 5, 10 and 15 wt% CuAl2 particles were prepared by mixing the powders in a small milling tumbler during 4 hours at 58 rpm. The samples were compacted at room temperature and at (210±5) °C by using a 38 mm diameter uniaxial floating die. A vacuumed chamber set with an Argon flux was adapted to sinter the samples at 555 °C, temperature that was determined by the exothermic peak of CuAl2 and sinter time was experimentally determined in 13/4 h. The sintered samples were tailored to perform the tension and hardness tests. The 10wt% reinforced Alloy exhibits the best properties: the fluency stress is higher in approximately 130% as compared with the plain alloy. Also the maximum stress, the stress at 0.1% strain and the Young modules are better. The Tafel polarization curves show that corrosion resistance increases as the reinforcement particles increase. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)