The study of microhardness of powder metallurgy fabricated Fe-Cu alloy using vickers indenter

In the present study, micro hardness values of Iron-Copper based alloys with different compositions have been obtained by using Vickers indenter. The samples Fe-5Cu-1Sn-7.5BN (wt. %), Fe-5Cu-1.5Sn-5BN (wt. %) and Fe-5Cu-2.5Sn-2.5BN(wt. %) were prepared using Powder metallurgy technique. The elemental powder mixture was mixed for 2 hours, and compacted at a pressure of 500Mpa, and then was sintered in dry hydrogen atmosphere at a temperature of 9000C for 50 minutes time. Vickers hardness values were obtained under the loads of 0.01 kg to 0.3 kg. The material with 2.5 wt. % of Sn exhibited the highest value of the hardness. The material with higher hardness shows better mechanical and tribological properties and can be used for various applications such as gears, bearings, connecting rods cams etc. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press.