“In-situ” weld-alloying of plasma arc welding of SiCp/Al MMC

Plasma arc welding was used to join SiCp/Al composite and titanium used as alloy filler. Microstructure of the weld is characterized as functions of alloy content. Results show that the acicular harmful phase Al₄C₃ is completely eliminated in the weld of SiCp/Al MMC by "in-situ" weld-alloying of plasma arc welding with titanium. The wetting property was improved between reinforced phase and Al matrix. A stable weld pool, a novel composite-material welded joint reinforced by TiN and AlN was produced and welding performance was improved effectively because of the use of titanium. "In-situ" weld-alloying of plasma arc welding is a new promising method for joining of SiCp/Al MMCs.