Liquid Metal Infiltration Processing of Metallic Composites: A Critical Review

Molten Metal Infiltration Methods to Process Metal Matrix Syntactic Foams

“…A mesh is located over the ventilation hole to avoid exiting particles during the infiltration In contrast with infiltration methods available for processing MMC, there are still routes which are not explored for manufacturing MMSF. These routes are known as Lorentz-force infiltration and Ultrasonic Infiltration, which are described in detail elsewhere [61] and are summarized briefly. Lorentz-force infiltration route is an indirect method in which external electromagnetic forces guide liquid metal flows through the open porosity of a preform of filler particles until interstitial voids are full filled.…”

“…Unintended porosity compromise MMSF properties so that it must be minimized.Other physical properties are able to strongly affect mechanical behavior such as fillers wettability and chemical reactions between matrix-filler interface, which can consume prematurely the fillers shell thickness. Usually, the wetting capacity of a solid by a liquid depends on contact angle and it is related by the Young-Dupre's equation referred to elsewhere [61]. When the contact angle (between solid/liquid) is obtuse, it results in poor wetting behavior.…”

“…Classification of molten infiltration process for the fabrication of metal matrix syntactic foams (MMSF) adapted from[61].…”

Preparation and Microstructural Characterization of a High-Cr White Cast Iron Reinforced with WC Particles

“…The liquid-state process is the most used in the manufacture of metal matrix composites due to lower associated costs and easier manufacturing when compared to solid-state processes, such as powder metallurgy, mechanical alloying, diffusion bonding or roll bonding [21][22][23]. In the liquid-state technique, the molten metal infiltrates through compacted ceramic particles, previously placed in the mold cavity, reacting with it and producing a metal matrix composite.…”

“…The process can be done by pressureless infiltration (spontaneous or reactive infiltration) [11,12,14,15,[24][25][26] or by pressure-driven infiltration (squeeze casting, vacuum pressure casting, centrifugal casting) [13,16,20,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. The major advantage of the liquid-state process is the possibility of producing products with complex geometry and parts with a surface reinforcement whereas higher wear resistance is needed [21][22][23].…”