Study on microstructure and mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered Alumix 431 powder

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) has been used to successfully densify a 7075 aluminium alloy obtained from Alumix 431 powder. Sintering experiments were conducted at the temperature of 450 and 500 degrees C for 2.5, 5 and 10 min. All the presented results confirm the excellent sinterability of Alumix 431 powder in vacuum during the SPS process and clearly show the effect of sintering temperatures and holding times on the densification, microstructure and mechanical properties of the obtained sintered compacts. The best results of hardness (1412 +/- 39 MPa), tensile strength (345 +/- 15 MPa) and compressive strength (618 +/- 4 MPa) were obtained by the compacts sintered at 500 degrees C for 5 min.