STUDY AND ANALYSIS OF SILICON CARBIDE PARTICLES REINFORCED WITH AL 6061 METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES OF BRAKE ROTOR USING PIN-ON-DISC

Aluminium Metal matrix Composites (AMC) is being extensively used in various field of life, especially in aerospace and automotive industries, because of its good thermal stability and excellent specific strength. AMCs are well known for high strength to weight ratio and high temperature applications. Currently the main research activities are carried out using Al 6061 brake rotor for four wheelers. Only few research works are reported in the case of two wheeler brake rotors. But still Al 6061 brake rotor are not used in motorcycles perhaps due to heat treatment distortion of thin disc. As reported by Sadagopan et al [1] only brake pads wear out faster but their research study was not carried out extensively on brake pad wear. In the present study, wear behaviour of SiC particles reinforced with Aluminium Matrix composites have been investigated. Al 6061 discs were made with 10%, 15% and 20%SiC particles by stir casting and machined to fit as a disc in pin on disc tribometer. Using Taguchi Design of Experiments, the experiments were carried out with 4 factorials and 3 levels based on L9 orthogonal array and the results are discussed.