EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF MECHANICAL AND TRIBOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF AA6063 AND MARBLE DUST COMPOSITES FABRICATED BY FSP

Abstract

The aluminium composites nowadays are replacing conventional materials from many industrial, home, architecture, aerospace, automobile industries, etc. as the vast use of MMC over conventional material, research work in this field increases. The was to analyze the effect of Marble Dust (M.D) on the grain structure, mechanical properties, and tribological properties. X-Ray Diffraction test is done for the characterization of the prepared samples. It reveals the composition of elements present in the MMC’s. Field scanning electron microscope also done to check the wear track and type of wear of a prepared composite. AA6063/M.D composite fabricated using F.S.P technique. Four samples were prepared for analysis, sample-1 AA6063 base material, sample-2 AA6063/M.D processed at room temperature. Sample-3 AA6063/M.D processed at preheat 100oC temperature and sample-4 AA6063/M.D processed at pre-heat 200oC temperature. The sample-4 gives maximum Ultimate Tensile Strength of 202 MPa. The vicker’s hardness of sample-4 is 29% more than then the base material. Sample-4 exhibits 15% increment in the micro-hardness as compared with sample-1. The microhardness of the sample-1 67.29 MPa, Sample-2 57.63, Sample-3 59.75 and sample-4 77.396 Hv. The FESEM images revels the type of wear and defects present over the surface of the material after wear. The microstructure shows finer grain structure and good bonding b/t marble dust and AA6063. The composite material showed better tribological properties as compared with AA6063. The Taguchi analysis revels that among all the input parameters speed has maximum impact on Coefficient of Friction (COF) and temperature had maximum impact on specific wear rate (SWR) for base material. In case of composite material sliding speed had minimum impact on COF and load had least impact on SWR.