Mechanical and wear performances of aluminum/sintered-carbon composites produced by pressure infiltration for pantograph sliders

Abstract Novel aluminum/sintered-carbon (Al/SC) composites for pantograph sliders were produced by means of pressure infiltration method, in which five porosity sintered carbon preforms were pressure infiltrated using 6201 aluminum alloy. Meanwhile, the effects of aluminum alloy on the properties and microstructures of Al/SC composites were investigated. The interface phase of Al 4 C 3 between Al alloy and sintered carbon was identified. The resultant Al/SC composites exhibited an excellent mechanical strength, even with the highest compressive strength value of 304.28 MPa benefiting from the metal acting as a reinforcement phase. The tribological performance study shew that the friction coefficient of the Al/SC composite infiltrated by 7.17% volume fraction aluminum alloy reached a minimum in comparison to other volume fraction samples under 70 N, and the Al/SC composite containing 26.92% volume fraction aluminum alloy under the low applied load of 20 N presented a low friction coefficient. Although the wear behaviors of Al/SC composites containing various aluminum alloy volume were variant, the same wear mechanisms were involved, including adhesive, abrasive, fatigue and oxidative wear.