Investigation of wear properties and production of aluminum based titanium tri-aluminite reinforced composites by centrifugal casting method

In this study, it is aimed to produce Al3Ti -reinforced functional graded (FG) Al and Al-Cu matrix composite by in-situ method and investigate its mechanical properties. It is aimed to synthesize Al3Ti intermetallic compounds which are harder and more abrasion resistant in the first step of the production of composites in liquid aluminum. For this purpose, Al-Ti master alloy, which is used as grain refining element in aluminum casting, is dissolved in steel pot at 1200°C containing 3% by weight of Ti. The prepared Al3Ti intermetallic compounds were allowed to spontaneously form as a result of the exothermic reaction of Ti with liquid Al during cooling. The rate of reinforcement of composites produced by direct solution method is about 5% by weight. This ratio is quite low for a composite material. Increasing the reinforcement ratios of composites is very important to produce a composite material with desired properties. For this purpose, the composites with a 5% reinforcement ratio, produced by direct casting, were subjected to centrifuging at about 800°C. In this case, the solid Al3Ti particles in the liquid aluminum are struck with the effect of the centrifugal force and swept towards the outer walls, and the reinforcement ratio in these regions is increased by 20%. In the work of using centrifugal casting, gravity casting, optical microscope, SEM, EDAX and XRD techniques, the produced composites were subjected to hardness and abrasive wear test. As a result, an increase of 100% in hardness tests and 300% in abrasion resistance was observed by adding 20% Al3Ti to the aluminum content.