Design of an experimental chamber for a new powder metallurgy technique to make continuous fiber metal-matrix composites

The existing fabrication methods of continuous fiber metal-matrix composites face many problems. A new powder technique was developed by the Composite Materials and Structures Center at Michigan State University to make continuous fiber reinforced polymer composites. This thesis research describes the design and the fabrication of an experimental chamber to test this process with aluminum powders. A thermodynamics approach was used to insure the safe handling of fine aluminum powders. The experimental chamber was used to fluidize aluminum powders and make aluminum prepreg tapes. Nylon coated carbon fibers were heated inside the chamber and coated with fluidized aluminum powders. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to characterize these prepregs. The experimental results showed a significant powder pick up in some regions of the tape. This proved that the process can be used to make aluminum prepreg tapes as a first step to make metal-matrix composites.