Effects of Reinforcement Particle Size on Cold Roll Bonded (CRB) Al1100 Laminate Composites

Cold roll bonding (CRB), a fabrication process that proceeds at room temperature, has been widely used in fabricating large-scale sheet metal composites. In this study, the effect of reinforcement particle sizes, ranging from nanoscale to microscale, on the bond strength of cold roll bonded aluminum silicon carbide (Al-SiC) composites has been investigated. The bond strength was measured by the T-peel test. Scanning electron microscope was employed to study the bonding behavior at the interface of the laminate composites. Nanoparticles failed to increase the bond strength compared with the unreinforced Al sample. On the other hand, relatively large particles (tens of micrometers) increased the bond strength noticeably due to the mechanical interlocking introduced by the particles. For the largest particle (60 μm) used in this study, the bond strength was large enough to tear the Al1100 strip during the T-peel test.