Some studies on fabrication of A356 SiC composites by using stir and squeeze cast methods to minimize the wear loss

Abstract

A356 alloy is ubiquitous in automobile and aerospace applications for its excellent castability high strength to density ratio low thermalexpansion higher wear resistance good fatigue and corrosion resistance In order to attain better properties the components manufactured using A356 alloy are subjected to various heat treatments by varying the solutionizing and aging process sequence or an alternative to attain better properties is to manufacture composites Composites with multiple reinforcements are the contemporary research area due to its increased performance owing to upgraded mechanical properties and tribological behaviour Such composites are fabricated by many methods especially liquid state fabrication like stir casting vacuum casting centrifugal casting squeeze casting and rheocasting Among these stir cast is extensively used in manufacturing aluminium composites owing to its simplicity flexibility and economical Though it is cost effective it has many demerits such as cast defects insufficient wetting of reinforcement particles due to difference in densities and difficulty to bring about a homogeneous dispersion of the particles The main purpose of this research work is to fabricate hybrid composites using the stir cast and squeeze cast methods to obtain better material with minimum wear loss In this work A356 alloy reinforced with Silicon carbide particle as primary reinforcement and Graphite particle as secondary reinforcement were fabricated by stir cast and squeeze cast technique newline