Wear characteristics of unalloyed and alloyed LM25-Aluminium casting

Use of aluminium alloys is increasing in passenger cars and potential for further growth is large. Further increase will depend on the improvement in properties of material for existing application or finding new application. Alloys A-356(LM25) is being universally used for alloy wheel rims of luxury as well as for other types of cars. Globally 40% cars are running on aluminium alloy wheels.

In this research 0.2% Cu has been added in ternary system of Al-Si-Mg alloy to increase mechanical properties of existing alloy. The alloy was cast in to metal mould and was solution treated at 540. for 4 hrs, water quenched and precipitation hardened for 12 hrs at 180°C. Wear characteristics of the material were observed under Wear testing using K93500 Pin-On-Disc Tester ASTM G99 test standard. This test was carried out under during dry condition using 2.5kg and 3.5 kg load, at 300 rpm of disc speed for 15 min. The microstructural characteristics of worn surface of alloys have been investigated using scanning electron microscopy_SEM. All intermetallic compound formed during solidification has been investigated through XRD.