Investigation on the Sintering Behavior and Mechanical Properties of Al-Zn-Mg Alloy Powders Mixed with Al-Si-SiC Composite Powders

Al-Si-SiC composite powders with intra-granular SiC particles were prepared by a gas atomization process. The composite powders were mixed with Al-Zn-Mg alloy powders as a function of weight percent. Those mixture powders were compacted with the pressure of 700 MPa and then sintered at the temperature of $565-585^{\circ}C$. T6 heat treatment was conducted to increase their mechanical properties by solid-solution precipitates. Each relative density according to the optimized sintering temperature of those powders were determined as 96% at $580^{\circ}C$ for Al-Zn-Mg powders (composition A), 97.9% at $575^{\circ}C$ for Al-Zn-Mg powders with 5 wt.% of Al-Si-SiC powders (composition B), and 98.2% at $570^{\circ}C$ for Al-Zn-Mg powders with 10 wt.% of Al-Si-SiC powders (composition C), respectively. Each hardness, tensile strength, and wear resistance test of those sintered samples was conducted. As the content of Al-Si-SiC powders increased, both hardness and tensile strength were decreased. However, wear resistance was increased by the increase of Al-Si-SiC powders. From these results, it was confirmed that Al-Si-SiC/Al-Zn-Mg composite could be highly densified by the sintering process, and thus the composite could have high wear resistance and tensile strength when the content of Al-Si-SiC composite powders were optimized.

Al-Si-SiC 복합분말과 Al-Zn-Mg계 합금분말이 혼합된 분말의 소결 거동 및 기계적 특성연구