A Technique for Improving Deformability of the 6061Al-Ticp Composites by Spark Plasma Sintering and Hot Rolling

A laminated composite structure with outer 6061Al ductile layers was fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) to enhance the deformability of 6061Al-TiCp composites. The sintered 6061Al/6061Al-TiCp laminated composites were hot rolled to a large reduction and then subjected to T6 treatment. The microstructure, texture and tensile properties of the laminated composites were investigated. The results show that the recrystallization process in the 6061Al-TiCp composites was delayed due to the pinning effect of TiCp. The 6061Al was characterized by the cube recrystallization texture, while the texture in the 6061Al-0.2TiCp was dominated by the beta/R fiber along with minor cube and r-cube components. The texture in the 6061Al-0.5TiCp and 6061Al-1TiCp composites was characterized by the beta/R fiber. The UTS and YS of the laminated composites increased with increasing TiCp content and increased respectively to the maximum values of 337 MPa and 316 MPa with 0.5 vol % TiCp addition, while decreased with further increasing TiCp to 1 vol%. The EL of the laminated composites decreased with increasing TiCp content.