Manufacturing and Mechanical Properties of Aluminum Matrix Composites Reinforced with NiAl Intermetallic Compound Produced by Hot-Extrusion

Manufacturing and properteis of novel NiAl intemetallic reinforced aluminum matrix composites produced by a powder metallurgy route is reported. This method consists of manual or wet blending of aluminum and nickel aluminide powders, encapsulating and direct hot-extrusion. Reinforcements distribution in the composites were acceptable, i.e. neglectable clustering and porosities were found. Reinforcement particles were oxidised prior toblending to prevent deleterious interfacial reactions. The oxide layer showed good performance in Al/NiAl. Meanwhile, in AA5056/NiAl composite, restricted reaction resulted in a slightly higher yield strength, but less ductility. Nano hardness technique was used to characterise the interface and to study about it.

Keywords:

Aluminum matrix composites , NiAl Intermetallic powders , Hot extrusion