A powder-in-sheath rolling (PSR) process utilizing a copper alloy tube was applied to a fabrication of a multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced aluminum matrix composite. A copper tube with an outer diameter of 30 mm and a wall thickness of 2 mm was used as a sheath material. A mixture of pure aluminum powders and CNTs with the volume contents of 1, 3, 5 vol% was filled in the tube by tap filling and then processed to 93.3% height reduction by a rolling mill. The relative density of the CNT/Al composite fabricated by the PSR decreased slightly with increasing of CNTs content, but showed high value more than 98%. The average hardness of the 5%CNT/Al composite increased more than 3 times, compared to that of unreinforced pure Al powder compaction. The hardness of the CNT/Al composites was some higher than that of the composites fabricated by PSR using SUS304 tube. Therefore, it is concluded that the type of tube affects largely on the mechanical properties of the CNT/Al composites in the PSR process.
A powder-in-sheath rolling method was applied to a fabrication of a carbon nano tube (CNT) reinforced aluminum composite. A STS304 tube with an outer diameter of 34 mm and a wall thickness of 2 mm was used as a sheath material. A mixture of pure aluminum powders and CNTs with the volume contents of 1, 3, 5 vol was filled in the tube by tap filling and then processed to 73.5% height reduction by a rolling mill. The relative density of the CNT/ Al composite fabricated by the powder-in-sheath rolling decreased slightly with increasing of CNTs content, but exhibited high value more than 98. The grain size of the aluminum matrix was largely decreased with addition of CNTs; it decreased from 24 μm to 0.9 μm by the addition of only 1 volCNT. The average hardness of the composites increased by approximately 3 times with the addition of CNTs, comparing to that of unreinforced pure aluminum. It is concluded that the powder-in-sheath rolling method is an effective process for fabrication of CNT reinforced Al matrix composites.
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