from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
The expanding range of applications for parts made of light metals (magnesium, aluminium or titanium) could lead to a replacement of parts made of steel by the ones manufactured from light metal parts. However, magnesium and aluminium parts in particular reach their technical limits when exposed to high tribological, mechanical or thermal stress. For this reason, often the so called metal-matrix-composites (MMC), which possess the advantages of light metal (low weight and high ductility) as well as of the reinforcing phase (high hardness, high strength and good wear resistance), are used.This paper provides the initial findings of a fundamental investigation of the specific forming behaviour and the mechanical material properties for production of partially particle-reinforced powder metal parts. Cylindrical raw parts consisting of aluminium powder and a ceramic powder are produced by powder pressing and further compacted in a subsequent sintering process. The produced raw parts form the basis for an examination for a reduction of the existing residual porosities by subsequent upsetting and extrusion processes. The effects of the different process parameters (pressing force and forming temperature) on the material flow of the partially particle-reinforced material system and the structural strength of the formed parts are investigated. Numerical simulations are performed to analyse the density development during the above mentioned forming processes in order to determine the influence of porosity on the deformation behaviour of the considered material. The findings will help to evaluate the dependence of the residual porosity for sinter-forged parts on the prevailing forming mechanisms.
Keywords: Powder metallurgy, aluminium, metal-matrix-composites, FEM© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.