Study on aluminum alloy piston reinforced with cast iron insert

Owing to the requirements such as light weight and high strength, especially in automotive sector, the use of reinforcement of heavy metals in the matrix of light metals is increasing. Piston being most demanding automotive component in terms of required strength to operate at elevated temperatures as well as at very high peak loads consists of an aluminum – silicon light alloy reinforced with a cast iron based insert. It is manufactured by gravity die casting process owing to the requirement of complicated inner shapes. Present work is focused on such a bi metal piston reinforced with a cast iron insert for harnessing the advantages of both the materials. In order to achieve a metallurgical bonding between aluminum and cast iron, the automotive piston fabricated with cast iron insert were subjected to heat treatment procedures. The mechanical and metallurgical characteristics of fabricated and heat treated pistons were studied through X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Hardness survey, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Shear strength testing.