Experimental Investigation on Influence of Process Parameters on Properties of Powder Synthesized Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites by Taguchi’s Analysis

The ever increasing fuel price created urgency for weight reduction of products in automotive and aerospace industries. Requirement of better mechanical properties, quality, improved wear resistance, lower coefficient of thermal expansion leads to the development of aluminum composites of lighter weight. The properties of the aluminium metal matrix composites are greatly influenced by the process parameters of the production methods. In this paper, aluminium metal matrix composite with reinforcement of 10% by weight proportion of silicon carbide is prepared by powder metallurgy process. The process parameters such as compaction pressure (100-130 MPa), sintering temperature (300-600°C) and sintering time (120-300 min) are considered. Properties such as compression strength, sliding wear resistance, micro abrasive wear and coefficient of thermal expansion of aluminum metal matrix composite are measured. Taguchi's experimental design is adopted for laying out the experimental conditions and Principal component analysis approach is used to identify the optimum and significant parameters which provide the preferable properties of the composite. It is found that sintering temperature (300-600°C) is significant parameter influencing the measured properties of aluminium metal matrix composites.