Abstract
Industrial waste is frequently utilized as reinforcing material in aluminum matrix composites (AMC) to improve their mechanical qualities. Mill Scale (MS), which is mainly composed of iron oxides, is obtained during the forming process of steel. In the present study, the utilization of MS as a reinforcement material in AMC was investigated. The MS obtained from a steel mill was initially pulverized by high-energy ball milling, and the milling parameters were studied. 20 hours of milling at 800 RPM provided the finest distribution of particle sizes with a d0.5 value of 1.553 µm. The milled MS was blended with commercially pure aluminum with a ratio of 0-10 wt% in a high-energy ball mill at 300 RPM for 60-300 min, then pressed and sintered for 2 h at 600-650 °C. It was observed that increasing milling time increases the hardness and lowers the porosity of the samples and increasing the temperature up to 615°C also decreases the porosity values. On the other hand, increasing reinforcement amount increases porosity up to ~10 %vol, especially over 2.5 wt. %. However, increasing the MS amount results in higher hardness values and lower sample wear rates because of the harder particle reinforcement.