Silicon Carbide-Aluminum Oxide Fiber

Silicon Carbide A79"L Silicon Carbide-Aluminum Oxide Fiber A155-R... 

Fillers used in large quantities to reinforce plastics are alumina (aluminum oxide), calcium carbonate, calcium silicate, cellulose flock, cotton (different forms), short glass fiber, glass beads, glass spheres, graphite, iron oxide powder, mica, quartz, sisal, silicon carbide, dtanium oxide, and tungsten carbide. Choice of filler varies and depends to a great extent upon the requirements of the end item and method of fabrication. 

Glass, carbon, and the aramids are the most common fiber reinforcements incorporated into polymer matrices. Other fiber materials that are used to much lesser degrees are boron, silicon carbide, and aluminum oxide tensile moduli, tensile strengths, specific strengths, and specific moduli of these materials in fiber form are given in Table 16.4. Boron fiber-reinforced polymer composites have been used in military aircraft components, helicopter rotor blades, and sporting goods. Silicon carbide and aluminum oxide fibers are used in tennis rackets, circuit boards, military armor, and rocket nose cones. 

The superalloys, as well as alloys of aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and copper, are used as matrix materials. The reinforcement may be in the form of particulates, both continuous and discontinuous fibers, and whiskers concentrations normally range between 10 and 60 vol%. Continuous-fiber materials include carbon, silicon carbide, boron, aluminum oxide, and the refractory metals. However, discontinuous reinforcements consist primarily of silicon carbide whiskers, chopped fibers of aluminum oxide and carbon, or particulates of silicon carbide and aluminum oxide. In a sense, the cermets (Section 16.2) fall within this MMC scheme. Table 16.9 presents the properties of several common metal-matrix, continuous and aligned fiber-reinforced composites. 

Aluminum Oxide-Silicon Carbide Fiber, developed by the Carborundum Co at Niagara Falls, NY, will withstand temps of 2300°F. 

Aluminum oxide-silicon carbide fiber 1 A155... 

Coated abrasives consist of a flexible backing on which films of adhesive hold a coating of abrasive grains. The backing may be paper, cloth, open-mesh cloth, vulcanized fiber (a specially treated cotton rag base paper), or any combination of these materials. The abrasives most generally used are fused aluminum oxide, sol-gel alumina, alnmina-zirconia. silicon carbide, garnet, emeiy, and flint. 

In the following sections some examples are given of the ways in which these principles have been utilized. The first example is the use of these techniques for the low temperature preparation of oxide ceramics such as silica. This process can also be used to produce alumina, titanium oxide, or other metal oxides. The second example describes the conversion of organic polymers to carbon fiber, a process that was probably the inspiration for the later development of routes to a range of non-oxide ceramics. Following this are brief reviews of processes that lead to the formation of silicon carbide, silicon nitride, boron nitride, and aluminum nitride, plus an introduction to the synthesis of other ceramics such as phosphorus nitride, nitrogen-phosphorus-boron materials, and an example of a transition metal-containing ceramic material. 

Metals and ceramics (claylike materials) are also used as matrices in advanced composites. In most cases, metal matrix composites consist of aluminum, magnesium, copper, or titanium alloys of these metals or intermetallic compounds, such as TiAl and NiAl. The reinforcement is usually a ceramic material such as boron carbide (B4C), silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum oxide (A1203), aluminum nitride (AlN), or boron nitride (BN). Metals have also been used as reinforcements in metal matrices. For example, the physical characteristics of some types of steel have been improved by the addition of aluminum fibers. The reinforcement is usually added in the form of particles, whiskers, plates, or fibers. 

A variety of CMC systems have been developed and fabricated in the past. These have included aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride and sihcon nitride matrix composites [3-5]. The reinforcement has predominantly consisted of silicon carbide based fibers. Oxide based fibers have also been evaluated over the years as and when they have become available. This chapter reviews the development effort of silicon carbide reinforced aluminum oxide matrix composites fabricated via directed metal oxidation and compares them with those reinforced with oxide fibers. 

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