The effect of sintering temperature and the amount of reinforcement on the properties of Al–Al2O3 composite

The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of the amount of reinforcement on the properties of Al–Al2O3 composite. Alumina particles were mixed with Aluminum particles in the range of 0–20 wt.%. The average particle sizes for the matrix and reinforcement were 30 and 12 μm, respectively. The samples were prepared at two levels of sintering temperature for a constant sintering time of 45 min. It was illustrated that at high weight fractions of reinforcement, the relative density decreases while the hardness and wear resistance increases. Results show that by increasing the amount of Alumina from 0% to 10%, the hardness increased from 33 to 62 BHN, while the compressive strength was raised from 133 to 273 MPa. The addition of alumina decreased the wear rate from 0.0447 mm3/m to 0.0262 mm3/m.