An influence of bentonite clay on mechanical properties of ferrous clay composite through additive manufacturing route

The powder metallurgy (P/M) components have been extensively used in industrial applications and P/M components properties has been influenced by alloying elements and porosity. In the present work, the bentonite clay (aluminum silicate) as porosity filler has been mixed in the ferrous alloy for manufacturing of low porosity P/M components. The specimens have been manufactured by using iron–carbon–copper and iron–carbon–copper–nickel–molybdenum with bentonite clay. The bentonite clay has varied with wt% of 1–5% at the interval of 1%. To recognize the effect of bentonite clay, the mechanical properties such as density and porosity have measured and the crushing strength, and hardness test has carried out. Also, microstructure analysis has been carried out by optical microstructure study and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Further, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS) analysis has been carried out for clay particles location and homogeneous mixing. The micro-structure and chemical composition analysis shows that the clay remains at grain boundary. The test results show that the porosity has significantly reduced while, slightly reduction has been found in density, hardness and crushing strength with an increase in wt% of clay. This analysis shows that the 1% of nano-particles of bentonite clay is helpful as porosity fillers with acceptable mechanical properties.