Aluminum reinforcement by gas tungsten arc welding

Abstract

Aluminum is a light metal and is widely used in a variety of industries. Aluminum-silicon has good casting properties but does not offer any suitable tribological properties. Therefore, in this study surface composite coating was performed by the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process, which increased hardness up to 34 HV, which is nearly two times compared to untreated specimens. This process is done by composite manufacturing with the silicon carbide reinforcement particles in the matrix of eutectic aluminum-silicon alloy. The mixed powder is deposited on the surface during melting by travelling the arc of GTAW. The desired optimum performance condition is achieved by arc current 75 amp, 1 g of poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) binder, 65 wt.% of aluminum powder and 15 wt.% of silicon carbide.

Keywords

• aluminum
• gas tungsten arc welding (gtaw) process
• microstructure
• reinforcement
• sic particles