Analysis of in situ Reaction and Pressureless Infiltration Process in Fabricating TiC/Mg Composites

An innovative processing route, in situ reaction combined with pressureless infiltration, was adopted to fabricate magnesium matrix composites, where the reinforcement TiC formed in situ from elemental Ti and C powders and molten Mg spontaneously infiltrated the preform of Ti and C. The influences of primarily elemental particle sizes,synthesizing temperature, holding time etc on in situ reactive infiltration for Mg-Ti-C system were systematically investigated in order to explore the mechanism of this process. In fabricating TiC/Mg composites, Mg can not only spontaneously infiltrate the preform of reinforcement and thus densify the as fabricated composites as matrix metal, but also it can accelerate the in situ reaction process and lower the synthesizing temperature of Ti and C as well. In situ reaction of Ti and C and Mg infiltration processes are essentially overlapping and interacting during fabrication of TiC/Mg composites. The mechanism proposed in this paper can be used to explain the formation and morphologies of the reinforcement phase TiC.