Effects of Compaction Velocity on the Sinterability of Al-Fe-Cr-Ti PM Alloy

Abstract

In this research, the effects of the compaction velocity on the sinterability of the Al–Fe–Cr–Ti powder metallurgy (PM) alloy by high velocity compaction were investigated. The Al–Fe–Cr–Ti alloy powder was compacted with different velocities by high velocity compaction and then sintered under a flow of high pure (99.999 wt%) nitrogen gas. Results indicated that both the sintered density and mechanical properties increased with increasing compaction velocity. By increasing the compaction velocity, the shrinkage of the sintered samples decreased. A maximum sintered density of 2.85 gcm−3 (relative density is 98%) was obtained when the compaction velocity was 9.4 ms−1. The radial and axial shrinkage were controlled to less than 1% at a compaction velocity of 9.4 ms−1. At a compaction velocity of 9.4 ms−1, sintered compacts with an ultimate tensile strength of 222 MPa and a yield strength of 160 MPa were achieved. The maximum elongation was observed to be 2.6%. The enhanced tensile properties of the Al–Fe–Cr–Ti alloy were mainly due to particle boundary strengthening.