Effects of die-pressing pressure and extrusion on the microstructures and mechanical properties of SiC reinforced pure aluminum composites

This paper studied the effects of die-pressing pressure and extrusion on the microstructures and mechanical properties of powder metallurgy fabricated SiC particle reinforced pure aluminum composites by optical microscopy, SEM microscope and mechanical testing machine. It has been shown that both extrusion and increasing die-pressing pressure can substantially improve the strength and plasticity of the composites since they decrease the number of microcrack initiators during deformation. The extrusion and increasing the die-pressing pressure decrease the number of pores and increase the density and interfacial bonding strength, and thus, improve the mechanical properties of the composites.