Development of Bronze Metal Matrix Composite for Automobile and Marine Applications

Bronze, an industrially relevant material, is always at a constant need for improvement in its properties. It should possess superior hardness, wear resistance and high tensile properties. The microstructure of the composite was characterized by using an optical microscope. The mechanical and tribological tests were carried out on the developed composite samples as per ASTM standards. It was observed that the hardness of the developed bronze composite increases with an increase in the reinforcement addition. The tensile properties were found to improve with addition of reinforcement particles into bronze matrix but, there observed a decrease in the ductility of the composite as compared to the regular bronze alloy. The wear rate of the developed composite was found to be low as compared to that of the regular bronze alloy