Nano Composites of Magnesium by Friction Stir Processing for Biomedical Application

Abstract

Magnesium is the third most commonly used structural metal, following iron and aluminium. In this research work, an attempt has been made to investigate the mechanical properties of Magnesium based metal matrix composites manufactured through stir casting route. Friction Stir Processing (FSP) is a solid state processing technique that has unique capabilities like low amount of heat generation, extensive plastic flow of material, achieving very fine microstructure in the stirred region, healing of flaws and reducing porosity. The process parameters are identified for the FSP of both pure magnesium based hybrid composites and commercially available hybrid composites based on the refinements in the level of the grain sizes, improvement in mechanical properties such as tensile properties, hardness improvement and wear resistance characteristics of the Friction Stir Processed composites. Three different tool rotation speeds such as 220 rpm, 340 rpm and 560 rpm and three different linear velocities of the tool (10, 20 and 30 mm/min) were considered as the process parameters. Micro structural studies have been carried out to investigate the grain size variations and an appreciable refinement in the grain size from 84 to 7 μm was observed through Friction Stir Process. The produced composite was test for antimicrobial activity for biomedical purpose.