Tribological properties of copper – flyash composite

Copper and its alloys have found wide application in manufacture of bushes, bearings and high conductivity electrical contractors etc. This paper focuses the challenges and opportunities in the improvement of tribological characteristics of copper flyash composite and identifies low cost reinforcement material .Copper flyash mixtures with different weight percentages were prepared. Copper flyash composites improves strength, stiffness and wear resistance. The major drawback of these copper based composites are reduced conductivity and poor mach inability. These two factors are strongly influence the popularity of the developed copper based composites in several technological fields of applications. To overcome this soft phase graphite is used as a additional reinforcement to the copper flyash composite. Graphite being a solid lubricant can improve the mach inability of the composite. Furthermore, graphite possess excellent thermal and electrical conductivity thereby, can improve the conducting capability of copper composites.