Accumulative press bonding; a novel manufacturing process of nanostructured metal matrix composites

•A novel process for manufacturing MMCs was invented, named APB process.•Using WCp and Al, bulk nanostructured Al/WCp composite was successfully produced.•The final MMC showed a uniform distribution of WCp throughout the aluminum matrix.•The crystallite size of composite processed by 14 cycles of APB was 58.4 nm.•When the number of APB cycles increased, the tensile strength increased.