Hot Consolidation of Aluminium and Aluminium nano-MMC Powders by Equal Channel Angular Pressing

In this work novel routes for consolidating aluminum powders via Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) are investigated. Furthermore, parameters were optimized for consolidating aluminium reinforced with nanoparticles (n-SiC) and nanofibers (Carbon nanotubes). Consolidating commercial purity aluminum powder with ECAP, approximately 60% rise in hardness and strength were achieved compared to materials compacted by well established direct extrusion, at the same time losing about 2 times in ductility. Al-1 vol.% nano-SiC composites showed increase in hardness compared to composites consolidated by conventional methods.