Fabrication and mechanical properties evaluation for the composites of Al₂O₃ and stainless steel rope

The composites of alumina matrix and stainless steel rope were fabricated by hot pressing at 1573 K. Most of the interfaces between alumina matrix and stainless rope were good contact, but a part of the interfaces had cracks probably because of thermal stress during cooling after the hot press treatment. The composites had about 400 MPa in strength and owned a remarkable high fracture energy comparing with pure Al₂O₃ material. This composite also showed high thermal shock resistance (about 250 MPa in strength after quenching from 400K) and excellent Charpy impact test performance (100 times over monolithic). Alumina based composite reinforced by stainless steel rope is expected to be applied to the high reliability in the mechanical properties.