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In the present work, thixoformed AlSi8Cu3Fe alloy was investigated for its tribological properties. The tribological analysis reveals good sliding wear behaviour for thixoformed alloy due to thixotropic microstructural character. The results are compared with sliding wear behaviour of conventional gravity cast alloy. This paper aims to discuss these subjects.

In this study, thixoforming and gravity casting methods are used to produce materials. The ball-on-disc CSM tribometer was used to carry out the tribological tests that were performed under dry sliding conditions, under two different loads of 1N and 5N. Wear tests were performed first on the conventional gravity cast samples and then on the thixoformed counterparts in exactly the same fashion to facilitate a comparison. The microstructural characterizations are performed in optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry.

Thixoformed samples have better wear resistance than conventional gravity cast samples. The wear performance improves in thixoformed AlSi8Cu3Fe alloy thanks to changing the microstructure. The superiority of the former is attributed to its structural features.

In this study, the thixoforming of AlSi8Cu3Fe alloy can provide important wear performance in comparison with conventional casting of AlSi8Cu3Fe alloy. This alloy is known to be used widely in automotive industry. Therefore, the alloy is highly exposed to wear and it is thought that thixoforming method can increase the wear resistant.