Fabrication of Copper/Alumina Composites by Using of Fractional Ceramic

Porous ceramic material is promising material for use in medical and consruction for building elements such as insulators for spark plugs in engines, brake pads and components for jet engines and other airplane. In addition, the plastic metal conducts to obtaining materials with improved fracture toughness compared to a ceramic matrix. Both the physical and mechanical properties of this kind of composites are strongly influenced by the properties of its individual components and production techniques. In this paper, prepared copper - alumina composites will be presented. The ceramic preforms were fabricated following the replication method, After processing, the ceramic material obtained replicates the structure of the substrate but with a very low strength. This allowed the destruction of the ceramic preform and to isolate fraction < 200 mu m. It is assumed that the addition of the ceramic phase will be 3-10 vol.%. The sintering process ran at 1050 degrees C for 30 min, at 15 MPa in a hot-press. The main aim of the presented investigations is to study the effect of different additives of ceramic phase on the microstructure and selected mechanical and thermal properties of copper - alumina composites.