POWDER PROCESSING AND ABRASION RESISTANCE OF IN-SITU IRON MATRIX-TIC REINFORCED COMPOSITES

摘要

Powder metallurgy (P/M) can be utilized to fabricate wear resistant Fe-Cr-TiC composite alloys. Earlier powder approaches combined iron with TiC powders and consolidated them by either hot-pressing or liquid phase sintering. In this study, iron powder was mixed with elemental titanium, chromium, and graphite powders, and then hot-pressed to full density. During the hot pressing cycle, an SHS-type reaction occurred, transforming the titanium and chromium powders to TiC and (Fe,Cr)_xC_y in a steel (Fe-Cr-C) matrix. The influence of alloy composition and SHS process parameters on the microstructure and abrasive wear resistance of the TiC reinforced composites are discussed. It is demonstrated that the in-situ formation of TiC and (Fe,Cr)_xC_y precipitates via SHS reaction processing using this P/M technique allows for careful control of the resultant microstructure and produces a composite with wear resistance comparable to similar materials produced by melt/solidification (M/S) methods.