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A STUDY ON SINTERING BEHAVIORS OF COPPER COATED SIC COMPOSITE POWDERS FABRICATED BY ELECTROLESS PLATING AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE CONSOLIDATED COMPOSITES

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Copper coated SiC powders having three different amounts of copper. in the range of 20-60 wt%, were prepared via electroless coating process. The produced composite powders were uniaxially cold compressed and sintered at different temperatures and times under protective atmosphere. It was found that composite Cu/SiC powders and a relatively dense copper matrix composite with a uniform distribution ofSiC reinforcing particles imbedded in copper matrix can be fabricated via electroless coating methodfollowed by conventional coldpressing and sintering process. The results also show that SiC particles have a poor wettability with copper and so liquid phase sintering of the Cu/SiC composite powders did not enhance densification of the samples. Regarding this fact, optimum sintering temperatures, which depends on copper content, was determined to be in the range of1050-1080 DC.

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