CRITICAL ASSESSMENT

Recent developments in fabrication of ceramic

particle reinforced iron matrix wear resistant
surface composite using infiltration casting
technology
S. L. Tang, Y. M. Gao and Y. F. Li*
Ceramic particle reinforced iron matrix composites are one of the most promising wear resistant
materials for tough conditions. Up to now, varieties of methods have been developed to fabricate
this material, e.g. the infiltration casting process, which is especially beneficial to prepare the
surface composite. Based on this method, a honeycomb structure of surface composite has been
designed aiming to increase its toughness and interface strength. Moreover, zirconia toughened
alumina (ZTA) is a perfect choice of reinforcement for wear resistant composite under high
impact. The wettability between ZTA particle and iron matrix is a key factor to determine the
performance of composite; the wettability can be improved by introducing active elements into
their interface.
Keywords: Surface composite, Infiltration casting technology, Particle reinforcement, Strengthening and toughening, Interface, Wettability

Introduction Research status of CPRIMC surface

Wear resistant materials have been wildly used for the composites
critical components in many applications.1–8 The annual Fabrication processes
expense of friction and wear in the USA, UK, Germany
The fabrication processes of CPRIMC can be divided
is about 2–7% of gross national product (GNP) based on
into three categories: solid state process, liquid state
various evaluations.9 As for China, according to the
process, and liquid–solid dual phase process according
statistics by Chinese Academy of Engineering,10 the
to the state of the metal matrix. Currently, the con-
friction and wear consumption of materials in 2006
ventional fabrication technologies of CPRIMC include
equals nearly 950 billion Chinese Yuan (RMB) and
powder metallurgy,18,19 infiltration casting,20,21 in situ
accounts for y4?5% of GNP. The traditional iron and
composite method22,23 and dispersion mixing,24,25 etc. in
steel materials, widely used in industry, which include
Table 1.26
high manganese steel, high chromium white cast iron,
Powder metallurgy for fabricating CPRIMC is limited
nickel hard cast iron, graphite cast iron, etc. which
in engineering application because of its complex
usually show a poor performance/price ratio.
process, high costs, and simple shape character. On the
The ceramic particle reinforced iron matrix composite
other hand, the infiltration casting process is a simple
(CPRIMC) has becoming a hot issue in the wear resistant
low cost method to manufacture CPRIMC;27 the surface
materials area companied with the rapid development of
composite layer can be designed for certain thickness
composite fabrication technology. CPRIMC combines
and structure according to the service conditions by
the desirable properties of ceramic and metal, and offers
using infiltration casting process.
several advantages in terms of elastic modulus, strength,
The infiltration casting technology can be traced
hardness and wear resistance, so it has been considered as
back to 1985,28 and it has been used to manufacture
a new choice to substitute traditional iron and steel wear
CPRIMC in industry since the beginning of the twenty-
resistant materials. CPRIMC has developed into a group
first century. In 2002, the Magotteaux Company in
of advanced materials in the last 20 years or so.11–13 Belgium29 invented X-win composite technology, i.e.
Remarkable progresses have been made on the fabrica- mixing ZTA ceramic particles with a binder and
tion process, interface performance, abrasion mechanism sintering the mixture to obtain a cellular ceramic core
and commercial application of CPRIMC.14–17 plate, and then preparing CPRIMC by infiltration
casting. The service life of the vertical mill grinding
rollers produced by this method is more than twice of
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, Xi’an the nickel hard cast iron or high chromium cast iron
Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China rollers.30 Kambakas and Tsakiropoulos31 promoted a
*Corresponding author, email [email protected] kind of WC particle reinforced high chromium cast iron

ß 2014 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 26 October 2013; accepted 5 December 2013
DOI 10.1179/1743281213Y.0000000175 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2014 VOL 48 NO 1 633
Tang et al. Fabrication of ceramic particle reinforced iron matrix wear resistant surface composite

1 Schematic diagram of vacuum infiltration process

matrix surface composite by infiltration casting process. metal and the ceramic particles. In recent years, Li
The composite layer thickness is about 5–8 mm, and the et al.37,38 studied the infiltration casting process of WCp/
service life of a pulveriser bank plate made of this iron matrix composite. They found the matrix micro-
composite was improved dramatically. The invention of structure and performance could be effectively improved
Wang et al.32 facilitated the advance of infiltration by adding proper amount of aluminium powder,
casting technology for fabricating iron matrix surface ferrochromium powder or ferromolybdenum powder
composites. Since then, CPRIMC has received more and into the promoter, and the Fe2O3 slag could be partially
more attention in order to manufacture industrial wear removed at the same time, base on which the infiltration
resistant parts efficiently. Researchers have developed a promoter (binder, flux and auxiliary materials) for WCp
variety of processes such as vacuum infiltration cast- reinforced iron matrix surface composite was invented
ing,33 centrifugal infiltration casting34 and reaction to fabricate guide plates. According to the feedback
infiltration casting.35 Niu et al.36 succeeded to prepare from Baoshan Iron and Steel Group, the service life of
an in situ formed WC/Fe composite on a grey cast iron WC particle reinforced grey cast iron matrix guide plates
substrate by centrifugal casting and produced a compo- is more than 5 times of that of ordinary grey cast iron
site layer thickness of 3 mm; some transition phases ones.39 Therefore, the replacement frequency of guide
have been detected at the interface which has a plates is decreased and the quality of the strip is
metallurgical and firm bonding. improved. Figure 2 shows the worn morphology of
The infiltration casting process can be summarised in composite guide plate and the ordinary grey cast iron
the following steps. The first step is the preparation of guide plate after 168 h of running time. It is evident that
the preform (in mush or cream structure), which is the the damage of the composite guide plate is less.
uniform mixture made of ceramic particles and promo-
ter. The preform is located in particular place in the Tribology research
cavity (Fig. 1) and then dried before pouring. The CPRIMC can be applied in various wear conditions, so
second step is the pouring of molten iron. Finally, the their tribology properties are of interest. Zhong et al.22
composite layer forms at the surface of iron matrix due studied the two-body abrasive wear property of niobium
to the comprehensive effect of melting, infiltration, carbide particle reinforced grey cast iron matrix
diffusion, sintering and reaction. composite prepared by an in situ technique. The wear
Before and during the course of pouring the molten test results show that the greater the number of tiny
metal into the mould, a vacuum pump can be used to NbC particles, the higher is the hardness and wear
expedite the infiltration of molten metal. Meanwhile, resistance of the composite; the wear resistance of the
when the vacuum system in Fig. 1 is removed, it composite with 28 vol.-% particles is 5?9 times higher
becomes normal infiltration casting which may decrease than that of the grey cast iron matrix under a load of
the infiltration depth and bring defects such as air holes 20 N. Li and Qi et al.40,41 compared the three-body
and slag inclusion. abrasive wear resistance of WCp/Cr20 composite with
During fabricating surface composites by infiltration Cr20 high chromium cast iron, and the results are
casting technology, a promoter should be used first to showed in Fig. 3. The relative wear resistance of
prepare compact. The promoter usually includes binder composite is much higher, and the maximum is 7 times
and flux. The former provides the compact with enough larger than that of high chromium cast iron. The wear
bonding strength, and prevents or diminishes the resistance of the composite tends to rise gradually with
formation of residual impurity by gasification in high the extension of wear time. Moreover, with the increase
temperature, which results in high porosity in compact. in wear time, the matrix of the composite is worn
The latter improves the infiltration between the molten concave due to its low hardness, so the reinforcing

Table 1 Fabrication technologies of ceramic particles reinforced iron matrix composite26

Preparation process Preparation method

Solid state process Powder metallurgy

Liquid state process Situ composite method
Infiltration casting method Vacuum infiltration casting
Ordinary infiltration casting
Pressure infiltration casting
Centrifugal infiltration casting
Semi-solid state process Dispersion mixing method Stir casting
Rheocasting

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 Tang et al. Fabrication of ceramic particle reinforced iron matrix wear resistant surface composite

2 Residual body of hot rolling guide plates made of a composite and b grey cast iron

As well as the above research on abrasive wear

properties, Flores et al.42 studied the behaviour of WC
particles in Fe based alloy coatings under different
erosion–corrosion (EC) conditions, such as temperature,
velocity and slurry content. The results show that the
microhardness of the coating is raised by almost 700%
and the EC resistance also increases significantly due to
the addition of WC particles; fracture of WC particles
under high impact, corrosion of interface under high
temperature and damage of matrix under attack by
slurry dominate EC mechanisms for the composite
coatings. Meanwhile, sliding friction wear and impact
wear characteristics of ceramic particle reinforced iron
matrix composites are also investigated by other
scholars.43–48

3 Three-body abrasive wear results of composite40 Strengthening and toughening design of

particles protrude out of the matrix and bear the main surface composite
wear force of the abrasive, resulting in a protecting effect The above particle reinforced surface composite usually
on near matrix. Meanwhile, the concaved matrix has an entire layer, i.e. a whole layer of composite forms
supports the reinforcing particles and absorbs the strain on the surface of the wear resistant parts. Although such
under stress (Fig. 4a and b). In terms of high chromium composite exhibits good abrasion resistance under
cast iron, the chromium carbides are much weaker and ordinary wear conditions, the composite layer may peel
smaller than WC particles, so they cannot protect the off along the interface under strong impact (such as
matrix efficiently (Fig. 4c). large crusher hammers) or high stress (such as grinding

a wear model of composite; b wear morphology of composite; c wear morphology of high chromium cast iron40,41
4 Mechanism analysis of three-body abrasive wear for composites

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Tang et al. Fabrication of ceramic particle reinforced iron matrix wear resistant surface composite

5 Structure diagrams of surface composites

a ceramic particles preform block; b composite material

6 Surface composites with pinning effect

rolls). Once the composite layer peeling occurs, it will reduced, as shown in Table 2.53 It can be found from
accelerate wear failure of the wear resistant parts. the wear morphology analysis that the honeycomb-like
In recent years, Gao and Li et al.49–51 developed a kind composite not only exhibits a microshadow effect which
of surface composite with a pinning effect. Compared is shown in Fig. 4b, but also has a macro-shadow effect
with the structure of traditional surface composites, the in Fig. 7. As the wear process continues, the honey-
structure (shown in Fig. 5) can effectively inhibit the comb-like reinforcement gradually protrudes out of the
composite layer from spalling along the joint interface metal matrix, thus protecting the matrix from further
owing to the matrix columns which extend into the wear. The industrial composite hammer prepared by this
composite layer. technology is shown in Fig. 8. According to the
The preparation of the ceramic particle preform block industrial application results, the service life of the
is a key link to achieve the surface composite with composite hammer is 4?6 times of that of the high
pinning effect by the infiltration casting process. Gao manganese steel hammer.
et al.52 invented a new type of high temperature
composite agent to improve the strength of the preform
block significantly, which can resist the impact of high
temperature liquid metal and prevent the premature
collapse during the infiltration casting process. The
honeycomb-like preform block is shown in Fig. 6a; the
macromorphology of the WCp/Cr20 composite prepared
by vacuum infiltration process is shown in Fig. 6b.
The results of three-body abrasive wear test show that
the wear resistance of the honeycomb-like composite
with pinning effect is closely equivalent to that of the
entire layer composite after a 2?5 h test with quartz
sand, but the consumption of ceramic particles is

Table 2 Three-body wear results of composites53

Entire layer Composite with

composite pinning effect

The wear volume 0.18 0.17

loss/DV cm23
The volume fraction 62.5 26.7
of the ceramic
particles in the
composite layer/% 7 Worn surfaces of composite samples

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 Tang et al. Fabrication of ceramic particle reinforced iron matrix wear resistant surface composite

8 a structure design and b section morphology of composite hammer with pinning effect

Reinforcing particles of iron matrix shortcomings of WC particles are fatal to the composite
for large scale industrial applications.
surface composite Compared with WC particles, alumina has some
The performance of the composite depends on its advantages such as low price and high hardness, and the
interface, so this has always been one of the key issues. TEC is relatively close to that of the iron and steel.
For CPRIMC, the type of ceramic particles, as well as However, it still exhibits some shortcomings:
the casting process and mould parameters, is closely (i) the wettability between alumina and liquid iron
related to its properties and the interface structures. The is poor (Table 3), and the phenomena of dissolu-
commonly used ceramic particles mainly include tung- tion and precipitation can not happen during
sten carbide and alumina particles, whose properties the infiltration casting process, so it is a mechan-
differ from each other greatly. The physical and ical bonding at the interface of the composite
mechanical properties of these particles are shown in (Fig. 10a)
Table 3.54–57 (ii) alumina is hard, brittle and easy to cleavage
Tungsten carbide particles have high hardness, so the fracture under impact load,60 so it is difficult for
composites reinforced by them can display high resis- alumina to protect metal matrix effectively, as
tance to wear.58 Besides, the wetting angle between the shown in Fig. 10b.
liquid iron and tungsten carbide particles is almost zero, Recent studies show that zirconia toughened alumina
so it is easy to prepare WC particles reinforced iron (ZTA) particles can also be used as reinforcement for
matrix composite by infiltration casting. In addition, preparing composites whose impact wear resistance is
tungsten carbide particles dissolve in high temperature significantly improved.61,62 ZTA particles have higher
liquid iron and then precipitate during solidification toughness than alumina because of the martensite phase
process, after that a diffusion layer may form in the transformation of ZrO2. Under high stress, the tetragonal
interface between ceramic particles and metal matrix ZrO2 phase transforms into the monoclinic ZrO2 phase,
shown in Fig. 9a. It is found that the main phase in the accompanied with 3–5% volume expansion which can
diffusion layer is Fe3W3C whose toughness is better than absorb strain energy partly and bridge the cracks
hexagonal WC,59 and it makes a good metallurgical simultaneously, resulting in the high fracture toughness
bond between the particles and the matrix, so the of the ZTAp/Fe composite.63 As can be seen in Table 3,
ceramic particles hardly peel off from the metal the TEC of particles is closer to the iron and steel when a
substrate even under a relatively strong impact load, as certain amount of zirconia is added to the alumina, and at
shown in Fig. 9b. On the other hand, the high price of the same time the wettability between particles and iron
WC particles (y400 RMB kg21, in China) makes it less liquid is also improved. This means that ZTA ceramic
popular for industrial application of iron matrix particles are not only of good toughness, but also more
composite. Besides, the thermal expansion coefficient suitable for preparing the composites by infiltration
(TEC) of WC (3?861026 uC21) is far from the TEC of casting method, which leads the developing direction of
steel (generally 11–1261026 uC21) in Table 3, so the CPRIMC. Of course, the hardness of ZTA ceramic
preparation stability of the composite is sensitive to the decreases with the increasing content of zirconia, so a
size of particles. The microcracks may form easily in systematic and in-depth investigation is needed to reveal
the interface between the particles and the matrix when the mechanical properties, thermophysical parameters,
the particles are oversize. It can be said that these etc. of the ZTA ceramics with different content of

Table 3 Physical and mechanical properties of ceramic particles54–57

Ceramic Melting Density/ Coefficient of linear Elastic Wetting angle

particles point/uC g mm3 expansion/61026 uC21 modulus/GPa Hardness/HV h at 1600uC/u

Al2O3 2015 3.95 7.1–8.4 350–370 1800–2200 13256

ZrO2 2600 6.0 8–20 190–320 1200–1300 11057
WC 2800 15.8 3.8 810 2000–3000 0

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Tang et al. Fabrication of ceramic particle reinforced iron matrix wear resistant surface composite

a microscopic morphology; b morphology after impact wear test

9 Microstructure and worn surface of WCp/ZGMn13 composites

zirconia, as well as the interface properties and the wear casting and also found that the coating increased the
behaviour of ZTAp/Fe composite. wetting property and bonding strength of the metal/
ceramic interface, as well as the three-body abrasive wear
Improvement of wettability and interface resistance of composite. According to many other
researches,70–74 the diffusion and reaction between
properties of composites alumina and iron matrix can occur after adding active
Wettability between liquid and solid represents the elements which results in an effective way to improve the
spreading ability or tendency of liquid on solid substrate, wettability. Wan et al.70 studied the influence of Ti on
which is essentially determined by the interface tension wettability of Ni based alloys and alumina, and the results
and the surface tension of liquid and solid. The showed that the wetting angle decreased with rising
improvement of wettability between the two phases is content of Ti. Further experiments71 indicated that the
the key to obtain the good performance composite. wetting angle can be reduced to 43u under 1603uC after Ti
The wettability between metal liquid and ceramic has was added by 15?1 at-% to liquid iron, and there formed
been studied a lot since 1980s,64–66 and some methods has TiO1?35 reaction product at the interface, which changes
been put forward to increase the wettability, such as the bonding behaviour of the interface from mechanical
coating on ceramic67–69 or adding alloy elements into bond to reactive bond. Lemster et al.72,73 found that Ti
metal.70–71 Jouanny Tresy et al.67 studied the liquid phase diffused into alumina and dissolved with metal matrix
sintered TiN coated Al2O3 or uncoated Al2O3 particles during the infiltration casting process of alumina
reinforced steel based composites and the results showed reinforced iron matrix composite. Bernhard et al.74
that the TiN coating increased the wettability of liquid pointed out that the reason for decreasing wetting angle
phase on particles which contributed to the improvement between alumina and iron matrix after Ti introduced into
of wear resistance of the composite. Yin69 developed a composite interface is that Ti rich reaction product
new way to produce Ni coated alumina particle formed at ceramic/metal interface. Meanwhile, wetting
reinforced iron matrix surface composite with over angle of high temperature liquid iron on alumina is
20 mm of composite layer fabricated by infiltration significantly decreased by adding a small amount of P

a microscopic morphology; b morphology after impact wear test

10 Microstructure and worn surface of Al2O3/ZGMn13 composites

638 Ironmaking and Steelmaking 2014 VOL 48 NO 1

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