Laminate squeeze casting of carbon fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composites

Carbon fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composites show an excellent combination of lightweight, mechanical properties, ease of processing and low costs. However, standard liquid infiltration squeeze casting often requires complex preforms in order to control fiber configuration and distribution. It also requires relatively high pressures to overcome the pressure drop across the preform, which can lead to preform compaction and damage and can limit the maximum component thickness that can be thoroughly infiltrated. Therefore, a laminate squeeze casting process is investigated as alternative whereby alternate layers of fiber fabrics and aluminum sheets are hot consolidated. Liquid infiltrates the fiber fabrics from their two respective neighboring aluminum layers, thereby reducing the infiltration distance from the entire component height to only half the thickness of individual fiber layers. This results in a rapid and thorough infiltration. Composites with fiber contents between 7 and 14 vol% are successfully fabricated. Despite complete melting of the aluminum layers at 850 °C, optical and scanning electron microscopy investigations show that hydrostatic pressure practically preserves the laminate configuration during fabrication and no fiber agglomeration occurs. The composites show good fiber-matrix bonding. No noticeable fiber damage is observed despite some carbide formation primarily at interfaces. A composite hardness over 50% higher compared to the reference 6061 matrix alloy is achieved at a carbon fiber content of 7.4 vol%.