Wear and Frictional Characteristics of Carbon Fiber–(Al–Cu) Composites

The dry wear characteristics of chopped carbon fiber-(Al–Cu) composites containing 8.7 to 32 vol% CF produced by the powder metallurgical process were investigated by using a pin-rotating cylinder type wear test apparatus. The wear volume of the composites was reduced to about 1/3 to 1/6 of that of sintered Al–Cu compact under loads, 0.98 N and 1.96 N, and to 2/3 to 1/3 under a higher load, 3.43 N. The reduction of the wear by introducing CF is considered to be smaller for higher contact pressures, and the wear-distance-ratio is larger for the initial stage of wear process, when the apparent contact pressure is high. These results may be due to lack of bond formation between CF and the metal matrix. The wear volume could be considered to be inversely proportional to the CF amounts, and decrease in the wear volume with increasing CF amount was much larger than the reduction of friction coefficient. It may be presumed that the higher loading capacity of CF is rather responsible than its lower frictional characteristics for the good wear resistance of the CF–(Al–Cu) composites.