1989 Volume 75 Issue 9 Pages 1555-1562
The continuous SiC fiber produced from polycarbosilane, an organosilicone compound, possesses outstanding characteristics and is expected to be an excellent reinforcement for MMC. This study concerned the research and development of the manufacturing process of "preform wires" which are composites with an aluminum matrix and are also semi-finished materials used for the fabrication of SiC/Al.
SiC/Al (A1050) preform wires were produced continuously by the liquid metal infiltration method. The process basically consisted of desizing, dipping for spreading and infiltrating, passing through a nozzle hole and taking up for winding. Each processing condition was tested and improved on.
As an improved condition, after SiC fiber yarn was heated at 1 373K for desizing, it was dipped into a molten aluminum bath at 953K for infiltration and then passed through a ceramic nozzle hole (diameter 0.25 mm). As the results, preform wire with a tensile strength of 1 560 MPa at fiber volume fraction 0.53 was obtained. This strength was about 95 % of rule of mixture, and it is considered that the fiber strength was highly utilized. Consequently, we consider that preform wires may become promising materials for the fabrication of MMC.
