Wear behaviour of A356/TiAl3 in situ composites produced by mechanical alloying

Abstract

In this study, the effects of in situ TiAl3 particles on dry sliding wear behavior of A356 aluminum alloy (added Ti) composites were investigated. The wear samples were prepared by adding different amounts of Ti (4%, 6%, and 8%) into A356 powder alloy by mechanical alloying. The mechanically alloyed powders were cold pressed at 600 MPa and sintered 530 _C for 1 h in argon atmosphere and cooled in the furnace. After the sintering process, the samples were characterized. The results show that AlTi and TiAl3 intermetallic phases were formed and their amount increased depending on the amount of Ti added into A356 powder alloy. Out of the samples sintered with different titanium amounts (1 h at 530 _C), the highest hardness value and, accordingly, the lowest wear amount, were observed in the alloy containing 8% Ti.