Effect of Heat Treatment on Mechanical and Microstructure Properties of PbO Glass Reinforced Metal Matrix Composite

Applications of Aluminum-based Metal matrix composites have increased in recent years as engineering materials due to their attractive combination of physical and mechanical properties which cannot be obtained with monolithic alloys. In particular, particulate reinforced MMCs have recently found special interest because of their specific strength and specific stiffness at room and elevated temperatures. The production method and the section of reinforcement will define the final properties of the Metal Matrix composite. The present work focuses on the production of aluminium based metal matrix composite with PbO glass as the reinforcement. For the uniform distribution of the reinforcement phase stir casting method is selected for the MMC production. The obtained MMC is then passed through a T6 heat treatment cycle to study the effect of heat treatment on the mechanical and microstructure properties of the composite. LM 6 alloy is selected as the matrix material for the aluminium metal matrix composite (AMMC). The mechanical properties of the AMMC increases as the % reinforcement increased and obtains the optimum values at 7.5 % addition of PbO glass reinforcement. The microstructure shows the homogenous distribution of reinforcement particles in the matrix. It also improves the hardness and impact strength of the composite.