Investigation of microstructure and mechanical properties in Cu-B4C composite materials

Copper, which is one of the first mined and processed mines of human history, is the second metal with the best thermal and electrical conductivity after silver. Although copper has high electrical and thermal conductivity, tensile, hardness and the like. low mechanical properties, alloying of copper, formation of copper matrix composite material or application of some heat treatments. One of the carbides used as reinforcing material in copper matrix composites is boron carbide. Boron carbide is predominant in improving the hardness, abrasion resistance, low density, chemical properties, high neutron absorption, adverse mechanical properties of copper. In this study, 2,5%; 5%; 7,5%; 10% B4C by weight in copper matrix was added to; produce composite materials at sintering temperatures of 6500C, 7500C and 8500C. The hardnesses, densities and electrical conductivities of the produced materials were measured, images were taken on optical and scanning electron (SEM) microscopes, EDS analyzes were made and subjected to abrasion test. The results obtained show that the hardness of the composites increases as the reinforcement ratio and sintering temperature increase; densities and pore voids decrease as the reinforcement rate and sintering temperature increase; it was found that after the increase of the wear rate up to 7,5% B4C addition, the wear rate decreased and when the temperature increased, the resistance against the material wear increased.