EFFECT OF MECHANICAL ALLOYING ON THE PROPERTIES OF POWDER-METALLURGY COMPOSITES OF THE AL-SIC SYSTEM

The process of mechanical alloying used in the powder metallurgy proce ssing of Al-SiC materials was applied to the treatment of a mixture of aluminum and silicon carbide particles in an attritor. Optimal proces sing led to the formation of composite pellets containing SiC particle s uniformly distributed in an aluminum alloy matrix. Subsequent compac tion of these mechanically allayed pellets produced material with ulti mate strength 587 MPa, elastic modulus 10.5 Cpa, and elongation 2.1%. Comparison of measured with calculated values of the elastic modulus i ndicated a high degree of matrix continuity in the structure of the me chanically alloyed composite material.