Surface Pretreatment and Fabrication Technology of Woven Carbon Fiber Cloth Aluminium Alloy Matrix Composite

Abstract

Carbon fiber is mainly distributed in the shape of short fibers and unidirectional fibers as the reinforcing phase in metal matrix composites, and it is seldom studied as woven-cloth shaped to reinforce the matrix. In this paper, the pretreatment and the surface metallization of the woven carbon fiber were studied. Besides, the casting experiment without external pressure was carried out under the application of magnetic field. The result shows that when burning about 45mins at 500°C in the atmospheric environment, the pretreatment can achieve the best result according to differential thermal analysis and weight-time variation curve. Meanwhile the surface wettability between the carbon fiber and the matrix is greatly improved after the surface treatment and at the same time the reaction between the carbon fiber and molten aluminium alloy matrix is necessarily avoided, and it can consequently achieve an excellent bonding between the woven carbon fiber and aluminium alloy matrix. The application of magnetic field also provides magnetic force to promote the penetration of the molten matrix into the carbon fiber bundles.