Characteristic Evaluation of the Fe-Al Alloy Preform Fabrication by Reactive Sintering Process for the Al Matrix Composites.

반응소결법으로 제조한 Al기 복합재용 Fe-Al합금 예비성형체의 특성평가

Squeeze casting was used for fabricating a light metal base composite having high strength and wearresistance. Reactive sintering was used to prepare the preform of Squeeze casting. To utilize Fe-Al intermetallic compounds and SiC particle as a reinforcement, there needs to prepare Fe-Al mixed powder at 50, 60, 70at.%Al, and add SiC powder to the above mixture at 4, 7, 16, 24wt.%. The prepared mixture with SiC was reactive sintered in a tube furnace at $660^{\circ}C$ to get a porous hybrid preform of intermetallic compound and SiC. The preform prepared above was placed in a metal mold, preheated at $660^{\circ}C$ AC4C matrix was injected into the mold with the temperature of the melt at $610^{\circ}C$ After these processes, 66MPa was applied to the mold for 5 minute to finish the whole procedure. The maximum reaction temperature was increased with the increased Al amount, but decreased with the increased SiC amount. The density of the preform was decreased with SiC amount increase in the compacts due to swelling of the preform. An optical microscope was applied to observe the micro structure and the dispersion of the reinforcements. To analyze phases, We utilized XRD, EDS. Hardness test were chosen to get the information of mechanical properties. There were no significant changes in micro structure between the composite and preform. However, it was shown that uniform dispersion of the reinforcers and complete infiltration of the melt into the preform were achieved through the procedure of the squeeze casting. It was observed that the hardness of the composite is decreased with increased SiC amount, resulting from the volumetric expansion of the preform.