Study of heat treatment effect on some metallurgical properties of Al-Bronze containing 2.5% silicon

ABSTRACT

Aluminium bronze of composition 8.3 percent Al and 2.5 percent Si was prepared by melting and casting. Specimens were cut and prepared for heat treatment, metallography, hardness, adhesive wear and tensile tests. In order to determine the temperature range in which the beta-phase exists, quenching from different temperatures ranging between 600 and 1000 degree were carried out. Solution treatment at the selected temperature [800 degree] followed by tempering at 200, 350, 500, 600 degree were applied. Ultimate tensile strength [UTS] of as-cast alloy was 550 MPa, while after tempering at 500 degree the value jumped up to 850 MPa. Also, this alloy gave good wear resistance in the range 350-600 degree. This was attributed to the precipitation of kappa-silicon