New Design of Composites from Fresh Scraps of Niobium for Tribological Applications

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

4-16-2021

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Abstract

Niobium is the best and excellent metal for many different industrial applications. Europe has not a Niobium reserve whereas Brazil has a major Niobium mining and produce %90 of the Niobium in the world as a raw material. However, the processing of this metal beginning from mining up to the advance processing for the real manufacturing engineering applications is very expensive and require a sophisticated equipment and investment. However, very huge amount of scraps of the niobium coming from manufacturing of the pieces is not reprocessed efficiently as valuable and economic way because quasi all of the scarps goes to the waste. The niobium scraps as an important secondary source of the raw materials should be evaluated for the manufacturing of the new composite design. As not possible to extract in an economical way, the recycling of niobium could be a sustainable occasion for the industrial applications. The present work review of the efficient and sustainable recycling of the fresh scraps of niobium metal in the frame of the common research project carried out between UNICAMP-Brazil and SUPMECA-France. In this work, aluminium (AA 7075) matrix composites were designed by using the combined method, sinter + forging through the powder metallurgy route. Niobium powder obtained fresh scrap by using high energy milling were used as main reinforcement element for the present work. As secondary reinforcements, fine Ni–Al intermetallic, TiB2, TiC, B4C and Mo powders were added in the matrix in order to prepare five different compositions. This process consists of the mixing, blending by high energy milling and compacting of the final composition through the combined method, sinter + forging. In the final stage, material parameters were optimized for improving physical and mechanical properties of these composites. Damping capacities and damage were analyzed by drop weight and quasi static compression, scratch wearing tests, etc. Microstructures were analyzed by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

Publication Title

Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Series

ISBN

9783030598679

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