Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Preparation and characterization of aluminium-titanium carbide (Al-TiC)

composite using powder metallurgy
T. Albert, J. Sunil, A. Simon Christopher, R. Jegan, P. Anand Prabhu, M. Selvaganesan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, V V College of Engineering, Tisaiyanvilai, Tirunelveli 627657, Tamilnadu, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Aluminum (Al) metal has numerous applications all industries according to its strength to weight
Received 15 June 2020 ratio. In the present work, three different volume fractions of Aluminium-Titanium carbide (TiC) metal
Received in revised form 4 July 2020 matrix (Al-TiC) composites namely 100%-Al, 95%-Al & 5%-TiC and 90%-Al & 10%-TiC are formulated by
Accepted 8 July 2020
sintering of mechanically alloyed powder (ball milling) in powder metallurgy processes to enhance the
Available online xxxx
mechanical properties. The prepared Al–TiC composites are characterized by SEM and EDX and their
microstructure reveals the uniform distribution of reinforced particles in metal matrix. Further, the
Keywords:
Hardness of the composite experimentally investigated and the results reveal that the addition of TiC sig-
Aluminum
Titanium carbide
nificantly enhances the hardness of the composite.
Sintering Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Powder metallurgy Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
Hardness ence on Newer Trends and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering: Materials Science.

1. Introduction
Aluminum alloys are widely used in automobile industries due
to their superior physical and mechanical properties like lower
density, low weight, low coefficient of thermal expansion, excel-
lent corrosion resistance, high tensile strength, high stiffness, high
hardness and wear resistance compared to the other alloys as well
as metals. The applications of Al metal matrix composites are
increasing day by day due to high strength to weight ratio [1–4].
Various fabrication technologies are used to fabricate the Compos-
ites materials according to the type of reinforcement used like solid
state consolidation (powder metallurgy), stir casting, liquid metal
infiltration, squeeze casting, and spray co-deposition [5–9].
Sharifi et al. (2011) mixed Boron Carbide nano particles with
pure Al powder by ball milling to produce Aluminium–Boron Car-
bide composite powder and hot pressed to produce bulk nanocom-
posite at different weight fractions. The results show that the
hardness, ultimate compressive strength and wear resistance of
the nanocomposites increased significantly by increasing the
E-mail addresses: albert@vvcoe.orga (T. Albert), sunil@vvcoe.orgb (J. Sunil),
simon@vvcoe.orgc (A. Simon Christopher), jegan@vvcoe.orgd (R. Jegan),
anandprabu@vvcoe.orge (P. Anand Prabhu), selva@vvcoe.orgf (M. Selvaganesan)
Boron Carbide content in pure Al [10]. Tamer et al. (2008) investi-
gated the mechanical and machinability characteristics of Silicon
Carbide particle reinforced aluminium metal matrix composites.
The results exhibits that the increase in reinforcement ratio signif-
icantly enhances the tensile strength, hardness and density of alu-
minium metal matrix composites [11]. Abouelmagd et al. (2004)
studied the hot deformation and wear resistance behavior of alu-
minium metal matrix composites formulated by powder metal-
lurgy. It was found that the addition of Al2O3 and Al4C3
significantly increases the hardness, compressive strength and
wear resistance of the metal matrix composites [12]. Rabiei et al.
(2008) used trial and error method for investigating the fracture
toughness of aluminium matrix composites consisting various par-
ticle reinforcements and compared the experimental results with
Hahn–Rosenfield model and found close agreement [13].
Ramachandra and Radhakrishnan (2005) experimentally studied
the wear resistance of aluminium matrix composites and observed
an increasing trend with the increase in fly ash content and
decreasing trend with increase in normal load as well as sliding
velocity [14].
The main purpose of reinforcing TiC into Al is to enhance the
mechanical properties. In this study, three different volume frac-
tions of Al-TiC composites namely 100%-Al, 95%-Al & 5%-Tic and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.155
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Newer Trends and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering:
Materials Science.

Please cite this article as: T. Albert, J. Sunil, A. Simon Christopher et al., Preparation and characterization of aluminium-titanium carbide (Al-TiC) composite
using powder metallurgy, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.155
2 T. Albert et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
90%-Al & 10%-Tic are formulated by sintering of mechanically
alloyed powder (ball milling) in powder metallurgy processes.
The prepared Al–TiC composites are characterized by SEM and
EDX. The Hardness of the composite experimentally investigated
through Brinell hardness tester and their mechanism are discussed.
2. Materials and methods
In this study, Aluminium (50 lm) is being used as a base mate-
rial and Titanium carbide (65 lm) is used as reinforcement which
are procured from Parshwamani Metals, Mumbai. The following
procedure is followed for preparing of Al-TiC composites.
 Blend the weighed TiC powder in a V-shape blender at 60 rpm
for 45 min.
 Fill the die with Al-TiC composite powder mixture and com-
press by 250 Ton hydraulic press for compaction.
 Then the compacted Al-TiC composite powder mixture is sub-
jected to solid state sinter
 Sintering in the furnace at 550 °C for 30 min which increases
the bonding strength of the aggregate powder particles.
The photography of compacted Pure Al, (B) 95%-Al & 5%-TiC of
Al-TiC composite and 90%-Al & 10%-TiC of Al-TiC composite in
shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Photograph of compacted Al-TiC composite (A) Pure Al, (B) 95%-Al & 5%-TiC
and (C) 90%-Al & 10%-TiC.
Fig. 2. SEM images of (A) Al Powder and (B) TiC Powder.
Please cite this article as: T. Albert, J. Sunil, A. Simon Christopher et al., Preparation and characterization of aluminium-titanium carbide (Al-TiC) composite
using powder metallurgy, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.155
3. Results and discussion
A SEM can be utilized for high magnification imaging of almost
all materials for determining their morphology. The SEM (Scanning
Electron Microscope) images of the Al Powder and Titanium Car-
bide powders are presented in the Fig. 2.
It is observed that the Al powder and TiC powders are exhibiting
the finest grain sizes between 40 and 60 lm with irregular mor-
phology. The microstructures of the Al-TiC composite are studied
using SEM.
A homogeneous microstructure was observed from the Fig. 3
which indicates that the first stage of powder metallurgy produc-
tion through the blending and compaction was done. Due to the
sintering in the meteorological furnace at 550 °C, heterogeneous
cluster of Al-TiC composite was observed. This heterogeneous
structure Al-TiC composite leads to raise in the number of pores
as its density decreases. The Fig. 3(B) and (C) clearly exhibit the
uniformly distributed TiC within the matrix material also the visi-
ble oxide layers are observed which will significantly impact on the
thermo-physical characteristics of the Al-TiC composite. The ele-
ment analysis or chemical characterization of Pure Al, 95%-Al &
5%-TiC and 90%-Al & 10%-TiC are presented in the Fig. 4 which
relies on an interaction of X-ray source excitation and sample
materials.
The EDX spectrum (Fig. 4) reveals the presence of the elements
such as Al, Tic, Fe and O in the interface reaction layer. It is believed
that the small amount of Fe and O detected by EDX is maybe due to
the oxide layer formed during sintering. Further, Brinell hardness
test method (ASTM E10) as used to estimate the Brinell hardness
of Pure Al, 95%-Al & 5%-TiC and 90%-Al & 10%-TiC. It is commonly
used to test materials that have a structure that is too coarse/rough
to be tested using another test method. The Brinell hardness num-
ber (BHN) of Al-TiC composite is presented in the Fig. 5.
Generally, the Brinell hardness is estimated by calculating the
diameter of impression made by indentor on the top surface of a
sample while Rockwell hardness is estimated by the depth of the
penetration of a indenter on the surface of the sample. Brinell hard-
ness is estimated by forcing the carbide ball of known diameter
and load into a sample surface and observing the diameter of the
indentation with a optical microscope. The BHN is estimated by
dividing the load (Kg) and the spherical area of the indentation.
 T. Albert et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Fig. 3. SEM Images of Al-TiC composite (A) Pure Al, (B) 95%-Al & 5%-TiC and (C) 90%-Al & 10%-TiC.

The Brinell hardness number (BHN) of Al-TiC composite is pre-

sented in the Fig. 5 exhibits that the addition of TiC significantly
enhances the hardness of the pure Al.
4. Conclusions
The present work on processing Aluminium reinforced pro-
cesses to enhance the mechanical properties with 5 and 10 wt%
of Titanium carbide particulate composite via powder metallurgy
has led to the following conclusions:
 Powder metallurgy was successfully used to produce Alu-
minium Titanium carbide Metal Matrix Composite.
 At the sintering, below the temperature of 600 °C, the
interfacial reaction between Aluminium and Titanium carbide
is good.
 SEM, EDX, microstructure shown the good interfacial reaction of
the reinforcement particles and the matrix.
 Adding Titanium carbide for increase Strength and Hardness.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
T. Albert: Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing.
J. Sunil: Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing. A. Simon
Christopher: Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing.
R. Jegan: Investigation, Methodology, Project administration,
Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization,
Writing - original draft. P. Anand Prabhu: Investigation, Metho-
dology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision,
Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft. M. Selvaganesan:
Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Soft-
ware, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.

Please cite this article as: T. Albert, J. Sunil, A. Simon Christopher et al., Preparation and characterization of aluminium-titanium carbide (Al-TiC) composite
using powder metallurgy, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.155
4 T. Albert et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. EDX spectrum of Al-TiC composite (A) Pure Al, (B) 95%-Al & 5%-TiC and (C) 90%-Al & 10%-TiC.

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Please cite this article as: T. Albert, J. Sunil, A. Simon Christopher et al., Preparation and characterization of aluminium-titanium carbide (Al-TiC) composite
using powder metallurgy, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.07.155