Investigations on ALFA composite produced by powder metallurgy route

ALuminium Fly Ash (ALFA) composites are light weight, high strength composites with good wear resistance properties. In the present investigation ALFA composites are synthesized by varying the amount of Fly ash reinforcement from 5% wt to 25% wt in the Aluminium matrix by Powder Metallurgy technique. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) characterization of precipitator Fly ash and the Milled Aluminium Fly ash mixture is presented in this work along with the results on green and sintered properties of the developed composite. The SEM photographs indicated a fairly uniform distribution of Fly ash in the composite; the green density is found to be decreased by 38.39% for specimen containing 25% wt of Fly ash compared to the specimen with only Aluminium. The densities of compacts sintered at 600°C were lower as compared to compacts sintered at 500°C, whereas Rockwell Hardness for compacts sintered at 550°C is found to be superior to that for compacts sintered at 600°C. For a constant temperature with increase in diameter and decrease in duration of sintering Rockwell Hardness is found to be increasing and for increasing diameters, decreasing temperatures and duration of time the Hardness keeps on increasing.