Preparation process of TiC particles reinforced Fe-Cu matrix composites

TiC/Fe-Cu composites were produced by in-situ synthesis under an electric field on a Gleeble-3500D thermal simulator, and in situ synthesis or directly adding adding TiC particles in a vacuum furnace, respectively. The comparision of samples produced by three methods was investigated. The results show that compared with that in-situ synthesized in the vacuum furnace, the Fe-Cu-Ti-C system under an electric field can not only react at a low temperature (754°C), but more completely. The relative densities and microhardness of the composites obtained under the electric field are higher than those in-situ synthesized in the vacuum furnace. Due to less TiC particles in-situ synthesized in vacuum furnace by the un-complete reaction between Ti and C, the microhardness of the in-situ synthesized samples in the vacuum furnace is lower than those produced by directly adding TiC particles. However, when the temperature is elevated to 1000°C, the relative densities of samples produced using the two different methods in the vacuum furnace have little difference.