Required component weight reduction often competes against wear and corrosion issues when it comes to lightweight metals. Aluminium and its alloys are widely used in different industrial applications, e.g., aerospace, automotive and machinery. Promising candidates for highly improved mechanical properties are aluminium matrix composites (AMCs), where ceramic particles are reinforced in an aluminium matrix [1]. Unique mechanical properties like high strength and thermal stability of the AC-Albolon® (AMC) material from Advanced Composite Corp. enable lightweight materials applications, where high rigidity and shape control are required.

To unveil further potentials of this novel material and increasing its use case range, an ULTRACERAMIC® PEO (plasma electrolytic oxidation) refinement was applied.
PEO refined AC-Albolon® (AMC) samples were tested under dry sliding conditions using a pin-on-disc system. The coefficient of friction and the wear rate of refined and blank samples were investigated. Initial studies reported a 90% reduced wear of PEO protected surfaces in comparison to blank samples, which might lead to an extended range of application of these novel lightweight materials. Further investigation was performed on the surface properties in combination of loading variations of the tests, while the wear of the counter body was taken into account to understand the whole tribological system.  Supporting measurements are presented by hardness tests, SEM  (Scanning Electron Microscopy), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and Laser scanning Microscopy (LSM),

References
[1] S.T. Mavhungu, E.T. Akinlabi, M.A. Onitiri, F.M., Procedia Manufacturing, 2017, 7, 178–182.