An Experimental Study on the Effect of Reverse Two-Step Sintering on Aluminium-Silicon Carbide Metal Matrix Composite

Aluminum (Al) - Silicon Carbide (SiC) metal matrix composite is one of the widely used composites in today’s manufacturing industry. Al-SiC composites are produced through several methods such as casting and powder metallurgy, but its production through Reverse Two-Step Sintering (R-TSS) process in powder metallurgy has not been addressed so far. The present work focuses on manufacturing Al-SiC metal matrix composite through reverse two-step sintering process in powder metallurgy. The reinforcement element SiC is embedded with metal matrix element Al in different proportions. Then the consolidated mixture is compacted using the die and punch setup followed by a two-step sintering process suggested by Wong; thereby, the final compact is produced. Further, the processed sample is analyzed for density and hardness tests.