Manufacturing of Austenitic Stainless Steel-Zirconia Composites by Infiltration

Within the framework of the CRC 799 “TRIP-Matrix-Composites” at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg new composite materials consisting of TRIP steel and zirconium dioxide ceramics are designed in a powder route and a casting route. To manufacture faultless samples basic investigations of the feeding and infiltration behaviour within macro porous ceramics such as filters were needed. The effects of bottom pouring and top pouring were investigated as well as the effects of different preheating temperatures, contents of phosphorous in the steel and flow trough rates. Bottom pouring corrupts the feeding mainly of filters with high ppi (pores per inch). Top pouring improves the feeding, but generates inhomogeneous infiltration qualities, which can affected and enhanced by a increasing preheating temperature, an addition of phosphorous or a defined melt flow trough the filters.