WEAR BEHAVIOR OF AA6061 ALUMINUM-ALLOY AND ITS COMPOSITES

This study investigates the wear resistance of four AA6061 MMCs together with the monolithic AA6061 alloy, all in the T6 condition, using a pin-on-disc test. In addition to the widely studied 20 vol.% Saffil MMCs, the present investigation considered a hybrid of 11% Saffil + 20% SiCp and a high volume fraction SiCp MMC, AA6061 + 60% SiCp. The wear behaviour against P400 SiC grit adhesive bonded paper and against BS817M40(EN24) steel were explored under an applied load of 9.8 N with a nominal contact pressure of 0.5 MPa. It was found that after testing against SiC grit, AA6061 + Saffil showed little advantage over the monolithic alloy, but the other three composites had a significant improvement in wear resistance. The hybrid and the AA6061 + 60% SiC showed the best performance. Only small improvements were noted for AA6061 + Saffil and AA6061 + 20% SiC over the monolithic alloy, when tested against steel. However, the addition of 11% Saffil to 20% SiC in the hybrid, resulted in this composite and the AA6061 + 60% SiC being retained in regime I of the Alpas and Zhang classification, and recording low wear rates.