Synthesis and testing of aluminium composite using industrial waste as reinforcement

Composite is made of two or more elements with different physical or chemical properties are combined together to form a new material. The property of the produced material shows elevated properties when compared to individual elements. Composites has two major elements called matrixes and reinforcements. Aluminium matrix composites are commonly used in many industrial and automobile applications because of its availability, high strength to weight ratio, good wear and corrosion resistance. Reinforcement is added into the composite to improve the tribological and mechanical properties, also it reduces the cost of the composites. The Al2O3 and SiC are the favourable elements for aluminium to
make to make internal bonding between the matrix and reinforcement. In this research work, the new material is formulated using powder metallurgy process, aluminium is selected as matrix material and waste Al2O3material from oil refinery industry is used as reinforcement material. The composition of new materials is 0%, 5% and 10% were added as reinforcement based on weight. The produced substrate
is tested for mechanical properties such as hardness, compression. The tribological properties such as wear and friction were tested using pin on disc tribometer. The characterisation is done on the produced substrate using scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-Ray analysis and X-Ray diffraction.