Prediction of contact angle for sintered alloy for solid freeform fabrication

Abstract EN

The present study aimed to predict theoretically the contact angle between liquid copper drops on well-polished carbons steel.

The theoretically established model was relied on standard tables for wetting parameters available in the literatures from which mathematical relations were extracted from the mutual relations existed among the parameters in the equations.

The established model using Math Lab program was then used to obtain standard contact angle values for theoretical proposed standard contact geometry with impressive chemical indicators affected by the polishing processes.

The contact system was the Fe-C / Cu couple which was usually fabricated by P/M route for high load self-lubricated bearings with carbon content in the range of 3-4 wt%.

Resulted values for the predicted contact angle indicated a decrease of the contact angle as the temperature increased approaching zero at a high temperature of 1084 oC approximately.

This will directly reflected on the degree of wetting of molten copper with iron, with an associated increase in rate of copper diffusion at the carbon steel surface, which was considered as indicators for surface chemistry interfere with the polishing process.