ABSTRACT
Ongoing research and development of composite materials has revolutionized the existing trends of material selection and usage in almost in every engineering sector, such as the automotive sector, sporting goods industries and aerospace industries. Metal Matrix Composites (MMC), especially aluminum-based MMCs (Al-MMCs), have evolved as high-performance materials, light in weight and with a lot of scope for tailoring the properties of the composite material. It has been established that reinforcing the aluminum or aluminum alloy matrix with ceramic material such as SiC, Al2O3 and graphite can enhance properties such as hardness, compressive strength and tensile strength without much increase in density, making the MMC more promising on the basis of specific properties and thermal management, which is very useful in semiconductor-based instrument manufacturing. This paper presents an experimental study of the synthesis of Al-MMCs through powder metallurgy and subsequent analysis of properties such as density, hardness and compressive strength. Moreover, the microstructure of the composite is also obtained and studied to see the effect of proportions of SiC on the properties of the composites when added to the aluminum matrix in the range of 5–25% by weight.
