Centrifugal Casting for

High Volume Fraction

Ceramic Metal
Composite Parts

Edward Barnard, Elizabeth Hager,

Jenny Lichter, and Kevin McComber

May 13, 2004

Overview

 Goals and Methods

 Design and Materials
 Theory
 Processing
 Part Characterization
Goals

Our goal was to design a manufacturing process

to create a high ceramic volume fraction metal
matrix composite (MMC).

The project took the process developed by Dr.

Jessada Wannasin and scaled it up for part
production.
Background on MMCs

 Combine
– High moduli of ceramics
– High toughness of metals

 Applications
– Sports equipment
– Wear-resistant parts for automobiles
– Packaging materials for space applications
Methods

 Fabrication methods
– Stir casting
– Pressure infiltration: gas, mechanical, centrifugal

 We chose centrifugal pressure infiltration

for high pressures and safety
Mold Design

 Two identical aluminum molds designed using

CAD, machined on lathes and a milling press
 Mold interiors coated with boron nitride to ease
removal
 Mating surfaces of molds separated by graphite
o-rings to prevent metal leakage
Assembly Design

 Molds were each connected to a half-inch

diameter steel tube via Swagelok connectors
 Added a "tower" to our centrifugation system
– held more metal in order to infiltrate complete parts
– black tube was used to stabilize the assembly in the
centrifuge
Materials - Metal

 Aluminum – optimal choice for MMCs

 Aluminum has problems
– Requires high processing temperatures
– Can be reactive
 Our metal choice: tin-lead
– Tin - 15 wt% lead
– Tin - 22 wt% lead
Materials - Ceramic

 SiC, BC, Al2O3 particles

 Most experiments done with SiC particles

50 – 100 microns in diameter

 Ceramic preforms
– Ceramic combined with ethyl silicate binder
– Sintered at 1500º C for 1 hour
Theory – Threshold Pressures

 Used data on aluminum infiltration from

Dr. Wannasin’s PhD thesis

 Minimum infiltration pressures:

– SiC particles, 7–155 microns: 2–22 atm
– Al2O3 particles, 5–20 microns: 8–11 atm

 Based on moment of inertia we estimated we

could achieve P = 50 atm, so P >> Pth
Theory – Infiltration Time

 Darcy’s Law for pressure-driven flow

 Tube–Bundle theory

 Infiltration time << 1 min

 Solidification time = 5 min

Process – Round 1

Lathed Preform set

polyethylene Ceramic Sintered inside
master used powder preform mold and mold
to and binder ready for halves bolted
create poured into casting together;
silicone silicone molten
rubber mold rubber metal poured
mold to into
create runner
Process – Round 2

Entire setup Heated setup

Final
heated at spun at 700
infiltrated
350 C to re- rpm for 5
part
melt minutes
metal
Infiltration

 SiC 220 grit

– Sintered at 1500 ºC for
1 hour
– Spun at ~700 rpm

 Nearly complete
infiltration
Characterization using SEM

• Fully-infiltrated • Cracks through SiC

sample particle
• Weak interfaces • Boundaries are
barriers to propagation
Ceramic Volume Fraction

 Estimated by weight and by imaging

 By weight: above 70%

– too high because we did not account for pores

 By imaging:
– SiC 120 grit (~100 microns): 58.9 +/- 7.1%
– SiC 220 grit (~70 microns): 61.3 +/- 11.4%.
Backflow

 Complicated, arbitrarily shaped parts

 Machined copper disk with a dimple
Brinell Hardness

 Creates deep and wide indentation

SiC 220 grit
 Appropriate for composite parts
 Instron compression tester

1.9 mm
 Results:
– Tin-lead: 174.4 MN / m2
– SiC 120 grit MMC: 285.8 ± 51.8 MN / m2
– SiC 220 grit MMC: 281.4 ± 39.9 MN / m2
Acknowledgments

 Jessada Wannasin
 Toby Bashaw
 Joe Parse
 Yin-Lin Xie
 Edgerton Machine Shop