FABRICATION OF FIBRE REINFORCED

METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES BY

SQUEEZE CASTING TECHNOLOGY &
ULTRASONIC EVALUATION OF THEIR
PROCESSING.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PROCESS OUTLINE
CLASSIFICATION
PROCESS PARAMETERS
ADVANTAGES
SC TECHNOLOGY IN MMC
FLOW CHART FOR PROCESSING
SQUEEZE INFILTRATION THEORY
PROCESS DETAILS
CASTING DEFECTS
MAJOR ENGINEERING COMPONENTS MANUFACTURED BY
SC TECHNIQUE






ULTRA SONIC EVALUATION
APPLICATIONS
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
SHEAR WAVE INTERROGATION
LONGITUDINAL WAVE INTERROGATION
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCE


INTRODUCTION
Squeeze casting (SC) is a generic term to specify a fabrication
technique where solidification is promoted under high pressure
within a re-usable die.

The idea was initially suggested by Chernov in 1878 to apply
steam pressure to molten metal while being solidified.

In this process a die set is placed on a hydraulic press and
preheated, and the exact amount of molten alloy is poured into
the lower half of the open die set, the press closed so that the
alloy fills the cavity and the pressure maintained until complete
solidification occurs (31 - 108 MPa pressure).

PROCESS OUTLINE
A pre-specified amount of molten metal is poured into a
preheated die cavity, located on the bed of a hydraulic press.

The press is activated to close off the die cavity and to pressurise
the liquid metal.

The pressure is held on the metal until complete
solidification.

Finally the punch is withdrawn and the component is
ejected.
CLASSIFICATION

PROCESS PARAMETERS
Molten metal pouring temperature
Melt volume
Melt quality and quantity
Preform preheating temperature
Die temperature
Applied squeeze pressure
Pressurization rate
Pressure applied duration
Lubrication level
ADVANTAGES
Fine grained with excellent surface finish.
No porosity.
Variety of shapes and size.
Improvement in mechanical properties like Yield strength,
Fatigue strength, Elongation.
Dimensional accuracy
No feeding systems,runners,risers,gates
Superior weldability and heat treatability.
S C TECHNOLOGY IN MMC
Fiber reinforced metal matrix composites have fibers that
are discontinuous and they are typically circular and vary in
diameter from 0.1 cm to 0.1mm.

In order to obtain proper bonding, wetting of the fiber by
the matrix material is essential. So, squeeze casting is used
to apply very high pressures to increase the bonding
between the liquid metal and alloy with the fiber.

The most common method to apply the reinforcement in
the desired location has been with the use of fiber performs

A fiber perform is similar to a sponge made of the fibers
that will go into the composite.

The main challenge to the use of performs is the high
pressures currently used to infiltrate the metal. These high
pressures may break the preform.

FLOW CHART FOR PROCESSING

SQUEEZE INFILTRATION THEORY
Liquid metal is injected into the interstices of short fibers
usually called as a preform.

Performs are made up of aluminasilicate fibers with a known
volume fraction of fibers and voids.

Fibers do not act as preferential crystal nucleation sites during
melt solidification .

Prolonged fiber-melt contact often under higher hydrostatic
pressure and with solute enrichment tends to favour the
formation of a strong interfacial bonding.
PROCESS DETAILS

CASTING DEFECTS
Oxide inclusions
Porosity and voids
Blistering
Cold laps and cold shuts
Sticking of casting with the die surface
Major engineering components
manufactured by SC technique
Engineering components required by foundries and
automotive industries are produced by this technology.

Aluminum dome, ductile iron mortar shell, stainless steel
blades, super alloy discs, aluminium automotive wheels
and gear blanks of brass and bronze.

Applications include aluminum alloy pistons for engines,
disc brakes, brass and bronze bushings, gears, differential
pinion gears, steel missile components and cast iron parts.
ULTRASONIC EVALUATION
Non-destructive evaluation techniques using ultrasonic
shear wave and longitudinal wave interrogations.

To evaluate the consolidation behavior of a Ti-14Al-
21Nb/SiC model composite containing a single Sic fiber
andTi-6Al-4V/SiC single-ply composite.

Partially and fully consolidated composite samples
prepared by diffusion bonding methods were examined by
these techniques.
APPLICATIONS
Characterizing the quality and mechanical behavior of
composite materials.

To screen for macroscopic defects such as ply
delaminations and non-uniform fiber spacing arising from
either missing fibers or displacement of fibers during
fabrication.

NDE is an equally valuable tool for detecting microscopic
defects arising during the fabrication of composites
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
FABRICATION
SINGLE FIBER COMPOSITES
Sic fiber in a Ti-14Al-21Nb matrix.
2mm thick
Diffusion bonding
PANEL A:Vacuum hot pressing at 925C under 5.5 MPa
pressure for 30 min followed by hot isostatic pressing
(HIPing) at 1010Cunder 1OOMPa pressure for 2 hr.
PANEL B:Vacuum hot pressing at 982C under a pressure of
9.2 MPa for 30 min .
SINGLE-PLY COMPOSITES

Sic fibers in a Ti-6Al-4V (wt%) alloy matrix

2 MM THICK

Vacuum hot pressing at 954C under a pressure of 9.2 MPa
for 2 hr.

SHEAR WAVE INTERROGATION
A 25 MHz focused transducer (6.3 mm diameter, 12.7 mm
focal length) was used in the pulse-echo mode.
The ultrasonic wave front was incident on the specimen
surface inclined to the vertical plane at an angle of either
18 or 24.
Vertically polarized shear waves propagated in the matrix
and were incident on the fiber /matrix interface.
The wavelength of the wave propagating in the matrix is
calculated by the simple expression, A = c
i
/f, where c
i
is the
velocity of the ultrasonic stress wave, f is the frequency.
Contd
In the case of the Ti-14Al-21Nb matrix alloy, the
velocity of the shear wave generated by the 25 MHz
transducer was measured to be c
s
= 3209m/s.
For Ti-6Al-4V matrix alloy were found to be c
s
= 3163
m/s.

LONGITUDINAL WAVE INTERROGATION
A 5O MHz focused transducer (6.3 mm diameter, 25.4 mm
focal length) was used in the pulse-echo mode.

The wave front was incident normal to the specimen surface .

A compressional wave propagates in the matrix and is reflected
from the fiber back to the transducer.

The velocity of the longitudinal wave propagating in the matrix
was measured to be c
L
= 6489 m/s, which is approximately twice
the shear wave velocity and for second one it is 6141 m/s.

RESULTS






DISCUSSION
Figure 3(a) corresponds to shearwave interrogation Of Ti-
14Al-21Nb/SiC and shows uniform reflection along the
fiber.

The matrix is completely consolidated around the fiber.

The maximum of the reflected signal occurs .

Fig 3 (b) : shows the image resulting from longitudinal
wave interrogation of this material.
Fig. 4 shows two ultrasonic images obtained by shear wave
interrogation of the composite sample which was
consolidatedby vacuum hot pressing alone.

The composite is poorly consolidated.

The reflector is defined by the envelope that includes both
the fiber and the void regions.

Fig 5 shows the longitudinal interrogation of panel B.

It shows non uniformity of panel.

An optical micrograph from cross section of panel A and panel B
is shown in fig 6 and fig 7 respectively.

It agrees with the result of ultrasonic evaluation.

Ultrasonic techniques are equally applicable for composites
containing high volume fraction of fibers.

Fig 8 shows shear wave interrogation of Ti-6Al-4V/SiC single-
ply composite specimen.

Left side fully consolidated and right side incomplete
consolidation.
CONCLUSION
The properties of the castings manufactured by normal liquid
metallurgy route are inferior and its durability is poor.

In order to improve its performance in the working conditions
,the old technological processing methods are obsolete and it
must be altered and modified.

Squeeze casting is adopted to produce superior quality
composite castings.

The composite castings produced by this method are
application-oriented products, which can be manufactured by
mass production.
Finally, two different ultrasonic NDE techniques using
shear wave and longitudinal wave interrogations were
applied to study the consolidation characteristics of singly
fibre and single ply composites.

A good correlation was found between the ultrasonic
images and the extent of consolidation of the matrix alloy
around the fibers as determined by metallography.

The results demonstrate the usefulness of these ultrasonic
techniques in evaluating the processing behavior of metal
matrix composites.
REFERENCES
M.R.Ghomaschi,A.Vikhrov Squeeze casting:an overview,Journal
of Materials Processing Technology 101 (2000) 1-9

T.R Vijayaram,S.Sulaiman,A.M.S Hamouda,M.H.M Ahmad,
Fabrication of fibre reinforced metal matrix composites by
squeeze casting technology, Journal of Materials Processing
Technology 178 (2006) 34-38

S .Krishnamurthy,T.E Matikas,P.Karpur, Ultrasonic Evaluation
of processing of fibre reinforced metal matrix
composites,Composites Science and Technology 54 (1995)
161- 168
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