LAUSR

Abstract In-situ TiC-Al2O3 strengthening coating was applied on copper, using the vacuum-expendable pattern casting (VEPC) in combination with the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) technology. Due to the high heat consumption, highly exothermic CuO-Al (CA) reaction was employed to guarantee 100% completion of the Ti C reaction. Consequently, TiC- Al2O3 coating was obtained after the ignition of Ti-C-CuO-Al SHS system by molten copper. Here, the optimal CA content was 10 wt%. During the casting process, molten copper infiltrated into the SHS coating, resulting in the achievement of dense coating microstructure. The hardness and wear resistance were also significantly improved. The hardness value of copper matrix was only 40 HB, while that of the composite coating was up to 195 HB. The mass loss reduced from 7.98 g to 0.44 g at 40 N load. Besides, metallurgical bonding was obtained with an ideal bond strength of 293 MPa.