Effect of SiC Particulate Reinforcement in A356 / LM25 Alloy Composites and in their Hybrids

LM25/A356 Aluminium Silicon alloy is characterized by high mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, machinabilty and excellent castability. Its prominent usage is found in high performance applications like in the automotive piston, cylinder blocks and heads, valve lifters, alloy wheels, brake pads and also in turbine blades. The prospects in applications of A356 are improved by heat treatment processes. Moreover the production of A356 Aluminium alloy composites renders provision for effectively tailoring the mechanical properties of the material by reinforcing the particulates of different ceramic materials at varying propositions. Although there are wide ranges of ceramic materials that could be potentially reinforced into A356 aluminium alloys, this paper exclusively reviews on SiC particulate reinforced A356 alloy composites and also its hybrid composites fabricated by strir casting method. This paper brings out the researches performed with A356/SiC composites under various experiment conditions to make this aluminium alloy available for other wide applications.