Studying the Moulding Ways for the Metal Powdered Aluminum Reinforced with Carbon Fiber in the Spark Plasma Sintering Process

Abstract

Aluminum and its alloys are used in many industrial areas, science and technology. Such materials are especially widespread in the aviation and automotive industries. Nonetheless, the usage of aluminum is somewhat limited for constructive purposes, due to its relatively low strength characteristics. Recently, the usage of aluminum reinforced with various materials, in particular with carbon fiber, has become an urgent issue. The choice of carbon fiber as reinforcing material is explained by its unsurpassed strength characteristics (more than that of the best steel grades), as well as by high level of thermophysical properties. Summarizing the properties of aluminum and carbon fiber in one material, it is necessary to expect the obtaining a unique material with a unique set of physical-mechanical and thermal characteristics. This paper shows the possibility to obtain dense bulk aluminum-carbon samples by means of spark plasma sintering from the point of the microstructure. The paper presents 3 different moulding ways of composites consisted of the powdered material reinforced with carbon fiber. It is shown that the densest structure with a uniform distribution of all elements in the sample is formed by using an additional easily removable liquid phase (isopropyl alcohol).