Investigation on Bonding Strength and Tribological Performances of Ceramic Laminated AA6063 Composite Developed by Friction Stir Additive Manufacturing

The demand for novel laminated sheets encouraged using newer technologies to produce tailored materials for multipurpose applications. An inventive solid-state joining method: friction stir additive manufacturing, which offers several advantages over traditional lamination processes. In this study, the Al 2 O 3 powder is used as reinforcement during AA6063/Al 2 O 3 /AA6063 composites fabrication. The fabricated specimen was characterized by bonding features such as thickness reduction, metallography, mechanical properties, and tribological performances and compared with sheet lamination and base metal. The optical microscope and scanning electron microscopic images showed that the Al 2 O 3 powder is distributed within the composites. The structural analysis at the interface of the fabricated composite was conducted through X-ray diffraction, confirming the compounds like Mg 2 SiO 4 , Mg 2 Al 4 , and Al 2 O 3 in the crystallographic planes. The microstructural and morphological results of the laminated composite showed the refined and equiaxed grains and also depicted the dispersion of the Al 2 O 3 powder near the stir zone. The microhardness properties were enhanced and obtained as 91.2 HV and 77.5 HV with and without reinforcement, respectively. Further, the ultimate tensile strength with and without reinforcement is improved by 36.9% and 24.7% compared to the base metal. Furthermore, the tribological analysis was performed at variable process parameters. Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array and variance analysis (ANOVA) were done to analyze the effect of individual parameters and their significance. The obtained results showed that load and frequency are significant parameters during the tribology test. The laminated composite's specific wear rate, wear depth, and COF values are less than the sheet lamination and align with ANOVA test results. Furthermore, the wear mechanism was observed, and it was found that sheet lamination has high wear at increased load when compared to laminated composite parts. Therefore, the obtained results dictate that the addition of Al 2 O 3 powder can significantly enhance the bonding strength, mechanical and tribological properties of the fabricated composites.