Tribological Characterization of Al-25Si Alloy

Tribological developments have played a pivotal role, in the conservation of materials and energy, and preservation of environment in various applications in day to day life. Friction losses and emission pose a serious problem to designers and engineers in automotive industry. Friction and wear losses in IC engines not only reduce its efficiency but also increase the emission level. In order to increase efficiency and to reduce emission, it is inevitable to develop alternative and appropriate solutions for reducing friction and wear in IC engine. This objective can be achieved by using an efficient material or a better lubricant or by adopting synergetic approach. Hypereutectic Al-Si alloys are suitable for a number of tribological applications in vehicles, like pistons, cylinder liners, compressor scrolls and engine blocks and in other different engineering fields. One of the main limitations on using aluminium high silicon alloys is the formation of coarse brittle phases under conventional solidification conditions. However, rapid solidification processing (RSP) with T6 sintering condition is very effective in limiting the coarsening of primary silicon due to high cooling rate.