INNOVATIVE PROCESSING OF METAL AND CERAMIC MATRIX COMPOSITES BY REACTIVE INFILTRATION

摘要

Reactive infiltration technique is an attractive process for the fabrication of metal matrix composites because no special equipment is required to fabricate large scale component. In this process, good wettability between the ceramic and the molten metal is very important. Since good wettability between boron nitride (BN) and molten aluminum has been reported, the spontaneous infiltration of the BN powder phase with molten aluminum was investigated. The BN powder was infiltrated with molten aluminum spontaneously at 1073K. After infiltration, ceramic phases were synthesized by the reaction. By blending titanium powder with BN, aluminum nitride (AlN) and titanium boride (TiB{sub}2) were formed by the reaction between Al, Ti and BN. However, it is crucial that the processing temperature should be higher than 1473K to achieve a complete conversion of the starting materials. Copper matrix composite reinforced by titanium boride (TiB{sub}2) was also dealt with.