The production and evaluation of fibre preform-infiltrated metal matrix composite castings produced by a developed pressure-assisted investment casting process

The squeeze casting process is well known for its ability to produce castings with good integrity due to the high direct pressure application on the liquid metal during solidification. This concept has been used to squeeze infiltrate fibre preforms with liquid metal for metal-matrix composite (MMC) production. Squeeze casting employs fast cycle times to produce high integrity castings. The squeeze casting process is, however, limited in terms of shape complexity and flexibility (e.g. thin sections). One-offs or small production runs become very expensive to produce because of the complex nature and high cost of the die steel tooling. [Continues.]