Hardness, tensile and impact behaviour of hot forged aluminium metal matrix composites

Tensile and impact testing and hardness measurements were carried out on hot forged aluminium metal matrix composites to understand the influence of alloying element and forming process on their mechanical properties. Pure aluminium preforms together with its composites such as Al4TiC, Al4Fe3C, Al4Mo2C and Al4WC were prepared using a suitable die-set assembly on a 1 MN capacity hydraulic press. Sintering operation was carried out in an electric muffle furnace at the temperature of 1200 °C for a holding period of 1 h. Immediately after the sintering process the cylindrical preforms were hot deformed in to a square cross-section bar of size 24 mm × 24 mm × 60 mm for preparing of tensile test and impact test specimens as per the respective ASTM standards. Standard tensile and impact test specimens were machined from the forged square rods. Standard ASTM procedure was followed to conduct the aforementioned mechanical testing. Further, microstructural studies on the hot forged square cross-section bar and hardness measurements were obtained and analysed.