Experiment and mechanism investigation on the effect of heat treatment on residual stress and mechanical properties of SiCp/Al–Cu–Mg composites

Anisotropic Tensile and Compressive Strengths of Al–4 wt.%Cu Alloy Powder: Part 1—Effects of Compaction Loads and Heat Treatments

“…It is important to note that we did not use sieves, which eliminates the need for time-consuming sieving stages. Previous studies have shown that this approach offers a favorable balance between sieving time, particle morphology, and achieved densification level [18][19][20].…”

“…The green samples were placed in alumina crucibles (Figure 2a) and sintered in a muffle-type furnace under flowing argon (~5 L/min). The sintering cycle adopted in this work consisted of heating at approximately 10 • C/min and holding at 540 • C for 1 h. These parameters were selected based on economic considerations and previous results [10][11][12][16][17][18][19]. Notably, the selected sintering temperature was intentionally kept below the eutectic temperature of the used alloy (548 • C) to prevent the formation of liquid phases.…”

“…Notably, the selected sintering temperature was intentionally kept below the eutectic temperature of the used alloy (548 • C) to prevent the formation of liquid phases. Based on the cooling step after sintering, two different groups of compacted Al-4Cu samples were prepared: the first group of samples was air-cooled, a process similar to annealing; the second group was water-quenched at 27 ± 2 • C immediately after sintering and naturally aged for 30 days, which corresponds to a typical T4 treatment [10][11][12]16,19,[23][24][25][26]. Triplicate samples were used for each group to ensure the reproducibility of our results.…”

“…First, compacted samples were produced in the transverse and longitudinal directions at different pressures within 1 h after obtaining alloy powders. Next, the samples were densified using previously optimized sintering parameters [16][17][18][19]. In the final stage of the sintering cycle, the samples were either air-cooled or subjected to water quenching, followed by natural aging.…”

“…Finally, both the compressive and tensile strengths were characterized. A particular contribution of this work lies in the use of Al-4 wt.%Cu (Al-4Cu) alloys, which can be recycled from conventional machining, drilling, and turning processes, or taken from rejection volumes in foundries [16][17][18][19][20]. The recyclability of these alloys helps reduce the overall costs associated with conventional processing routes based on atomization and electrolytic methods.…”