Characteristic Evaluation of Iron Aluminide-Cu and Ni-P Coated Preform Fabricated by Reactive Sintering Process

Effects of coating treatment of metallic Cu, Ni-P film on $SiC_p$, for $SiC_p$/iron aluminide composites were studied. Porous hybrid preforms were fabricated by reactive sintering after mixing the coated $SiC_p$, Fe and Al powders. Then the final composites were manufactured by squeeze casting after pouring AC4C Al alloy melts in preforms. The change of reactive temperature, density, microstructure of the preforms and microstructure of the composites were investigated. The exprimental results were summarized as follows. The thickness of Cu and Ni-P metallic layer formed on $SiC_p$ by electroless plating method were about $0.5{\mu}m$ and coated uniformly. There was no remakable change in the ignition temperature with variation of the mixing ratio of Fe and Al powder while in the case of coated $SiC_p$ it was lower about $20^{\circ}C$ than in the non-coated $SiC_p$. The maximum reaction temperature increased with increasing Al contents, but decreased with increasing $SiC_p$ contents. Expansion ratio of preform after reactive sintering increased with amount of Cu coated $SiC_p$. In the case of Fe-70at.%Al, the expansion ratio was about 7% up to 8wt.% of $SiC_p$, addition but further addition of $SiC_p$, increased the ratio significantly. And in the case of Fe-50 and 60at.%Al, it was about 20% up to 16wt.% of $SiC_p$ addition and about 28% in 24wt.% of $SiC_p$, addition. The microstructures of compounds showed that the grains became finer as amount of $SiC_p$, and mixing ratio of iron powder increased and the shape of compounds was changed gradually from irregular to spheroidal.

반응소결법으로 제조한 Iron Aluminide-Cu 및 Ni-P 피복 예비성형체의 특성평가