Tribological Properties on Aluminium (Lm25) Reinforced with Boron Carbide and Tungsten Carbide

The major driving force in an automotive industry is to develop & implement the new materials for the reduction of mass, fuel consumption & vehicle emissions. Some automotive parts like engine cylinder, connecting rods, pistons & brake system are not satisfactory in Tribological properties, making increase in wear loss & decrease in hardness of the materials. Recently, Hybrid Metal Matrix Composites have evolved alternative to MMC. Hybrid Metal Matrix Composites are the composites having more than one reinforcement particulates. The main advantage of this type of composites can withstand high temperature; high wear resistance compared to MMC. Aluminium based Hybrid Metal Matrix Composites are widely used in automotive applications because of their good potential characteristics. In the present work, Hybrid Aluminum Metal Matrix Composite samples are fabricated by base metal Aluminium (LM25) reinforced with Boron Carbide (B4C) of different weight percentages like 1.5%, 3%, 4.5% & Tungsten Carbide (WC) of constant weight percentage 1.5% by varying stirrer speed (200, 250 & 300rpm) by using Stir Casting method. Evaluation of Tribological properties of the composite samples is studied. Microstructure examination was done using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to obtain distribution of B4C & WC particulates in Al (LM25) matrix.