Hartmut Schurmann

Production of MMCs on the Basis of Fibres Coated with the Metal Alloy by Magnetron Sputtering

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are attractive materials for specific technical applications. At DLR in recent years MMCs are developed making use of a CVD SiC-fibre (mainly the SCS-6 fibre of Specialty Materials, USA). SiC-fibre reinforced titanium alloys are developed and optimized in the past decade mainly for application in the aircraft gas turbine. As the composite material is light (specific weight 4.0) stiff and strong it is especially suitable for rotating components. A new development for another field of application is the production of SiC-fibre reinforced copper alloys as a heat sink material for application in fusion reactors and rocket propulsion. The technique to produce titanium and copper based MMCs is based on coating the fibre with the respective alloy by magnetron sputtering. In this way the alloy initially produced as a coating is transformed into bulk matrix material, when coated fibres stacked in a preform are hot-isostatically pressed and consolidated at a high temperature and pressure.