Tribological Properties of Spark Plasma Sintered Al-SiC Composites

The paper presents the results of research on the tribological properties of spark-plasma-sintered Al-SiC composites. Composites with contents of 50 and 70 wt.% SiC were prepared. The sintering process was carried out using an HP D 25/3 spark plasma sintering furnace under vacuum, at the sintering temperature of 600 °C and compaction pressures of 50 and 80 MPa, respectively. The heating rate was 100 °C/min and the holding time was 10 min. Composites with a density of 91–100% were obtained. The tribological properties of the composites were evaluated based on weight loss and the coefficient of friction using a block-on-ring tribotester. Along with the weight percentage of SiC and compaction pressure, the sliding distance, and load during the tribological test were considered. Both the weight percentage of SiC and compaction pressure affected the tribological behavior of Al-SiC composites. It was found that the wear resistance was higher when a lower compaction pressure and a smaller amount of reinforcing phase (50 wt.%) were used.