Simplified PM processing of mechanically alloyed aluminium

Abstract

Mechanically alloyed aluminium powder has been consolidated by a single cycle of cold pressing and sintering to produce bulk powder metallurgy (PM) aluminium parts. To facilitate the difficult consolidation, the as milled aluminium powder, eventually in the annealed condition, was mixed, previously to pressing, with a small amount of magnesium powder, as sintering aid. Both the blending of magnesium powder and the annealing treatment improves ductility and strength of consolidated samples simultaneously. Bulk samples also have a remarkable stability and performance at high temperature.

Keywords:

• Mechanically alloyed Al
• PM processing
• Sintering aids
• Mechanical properties
• High temperature performance

The authors thank the MEC/FEDER, Madrid, Spain, for financial help through the project MAT2007‐61643.