Conventional sintering of copper powder with and without addition of different weight percentage of aluminium powder

Abstract

Cu-Al powder for different weight percentages of 5, 10 and 15 was ball milled for 30 min. The compacts of pure Cu, Cu- 5 wt.% Al, Cu-10 wt.% Al and Cu-15 wt.% Al was compacted using metallic die by applying 70 kN force. The compacts were kept in a heat treatment electrical resistance furnace at 600oC for 8hr for conventional sintering. The conventional sintered compacts were tested to measure the behaviour of the alloy. The density of the sintered compact of Cu, Cu-5 wt.% Al, Cu-10 wt.% Al and Cu-15 wt.% Al were calculated using water displacement method. The surface topography of the sintered compacts were analysed using optical metallurgical microscope for the magnifications of 100x. The microstructure of the copper is exhibited cellular structure. The quantity of the secondary phase increases with increasing Al content. The hardness values of respective compacts were measured using Wilson micro Vickers hardness testing machine. The micro Vickers hardness values of Cu, Cu-5 wt.% Al, Cu-10 wt.% Al and Cu-15 wt. % Al were measured as 38.78 ± 1.2, 21.22 ± 2.0, 24.54 ± 3.7 and 39.44 ± 3.5 HV1 respectively. The compression strength of the sintered compacts of pure copper, copper with 5, 10 and 15 wt.% Al were determined using universal testing machine. The compression strength of Cu-15 wt.% Al is higher than copper and other sintered Cu-Al compacts.