Effect of Induction Heat Treatment Process and Graphene/B4C Amount on the Tribological and Mechanical Properties of Al6061 Hybrid Composites

This work intended to manufacture the Al6061 alloy, Al6061-B4C, and Al6061-B4C-graphene composites with various B4C and graphene contents (B4C: 1 wt.%, 3 wt.%, 6 wt.%, 9 wt.%, 12 wt.%, 15 wt.%, 30 wt.%; graphene: 0.15 wt.%, 0.30 wt.%, 0.45 wt.%) via the induction heat treatment process and powder metallurgy route. This paper also discussed the influence of the heat treatment process and B4C/graphene amount on the wear rate, mass loss, friction coefficient, compressive strength, hardness, density, and microstructure of Al6061 hybrid composites. According to the tribological test results, wear rate and friction coefficient decreased from 1 × 10–7 mm3/(Nm), 0.43 (Al6061 alloy) to 0.8 × 10–8 mm3/(Nm), 0.22 (Al6061-30B4C-0.15-graphene) because of the graphene/B4C addition and the induction heat treatment process. Maximum hardness (238 ± 4 HV) and compressive strength (571 ± 6 MPa) were detected at induction heat treated and sintered Al6061-30B4C-0.15-graphene composite, which increased by ~ 150% and ~ 126% compared with Al6061 alloy. The present results indicated that the induction heat treatment and addition of homogeneously dispersed graphene/B4C particles improved the tribological and mechanical properties of Al6061 hybrid composites.