Y. Tsunekawa et al., SURFACE MODIFICATION OF ALUMINUM BY ELECTRICAL-DISCHARGE ALLOYING, Materials science & engineering. A, Structural materials: properties, microstructure and processing, 174(2), 1994, pp. 193-198
Surface modification of aluminum was carried out using a new method na
med electrical discharge alloying. Deposition of titanium contained in
electrodes and carbon decomposed from hydrocarbon working fluid occur
s on aluminum substrates. With an electrode of a Ti-36mass%Al premixed
green compact, in situ composite layers mainly consisting of TiC and
TiAl are formed. The process makes it possible not only to coat the in
situ composite layers with a thickness of 100 mu m within a few minut
es but also to obtain different TiC volume ratios by changing the proc
ess parameters. The formation of fine dendritic TiC precipitates can b
e considered to be a result of rapid solidification during the process
. The volume ratio of TiC decreases with increasing distance from the
surface, which means that the modified layers are composed of gradient
constituents. The hardness close to the surface can be controlled to
a value of 3.5-10.5 GPa changing the process parameters, such as the p
ulse width and working time.