Investigations of mechanical and wear properties of alumina/titania/fire-clay reinforced epoxy composites

In this work, the effect of various particulates (alumina, titania, fire clay) reinforcements on mechanical and wear properties of epoxy composites have been studied with a prime motive of replacing the costly alumina and titania by much economical fire clay for high mechanical strength and/or wear resistant materials. Fire clay based epoxy composites delivered better mechanical (both tensile and impact) properties than the alumina filled or neat epoxy composites and slightly lower than titania reinforced composites, which qualified the fire clay a very suitable cost effective alternatives of both alumina and titania for high mechanical strength based applications. However, the poor wear behavior of fire clay reinforced composites revealed its poor candidacy for wear and tear applications.