Microstructural valuation of iron-based composite materials as an ecomaterial

One of an important method to realize is said that we should take recycle processes into consideration and select the material without the mixture of particular elements that make it difficult to recycle. Therefore, it is useful to control of microstructure for improvement. From this point of view, we paid attention to ''SCIFER (that is made from Kobe Steel Ltd.)'' that has a recyclable formation (Fe-C-Si-Mn) and superior characteristic (tensile strength is 5000MPa). The grain size of this fiber is nano-size. In this study, we used this material and compounded it together with iron-matrix to make an iron-based composite for recycle and investigated the possibilities of realization. The difficulty of this study is to make this composite without injuring the fiber's microstructure. Therefore, we have adopted powder metallurgy which could fabricate composite at low temperature comparatively. Especially, Ultra Fine Particles (UFP) that would sinter at low temperature to bond the interface between fiber and matrix with keeping fiber's capacity. This method is useful to ascend the density of the matrix. Results are as follows. (1) Utilization of UFP slurry made it possible to adhere UFP to the surface of fiber and seed powder. Still more, this procedure enabled it to make a thin film uniformly by selecting the condition of slurry density and procedure of dryness. (2) Applying UFP to the surface of fiber and seed powder make it possible to get the bond between fiber and matrix. By the bond of interface, both fracture strength and energies have ascended remarkably due to pull out of fiber.