Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 2723–2732 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings 2214-7853©2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Conference Committee Members of 5th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization (ICMPC 2016). 5th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization (ICMPC 2016) Investigation and Testing of Mechanical Properties of Al-Nano SiC Composites through Cold Isostatic Compaction Process Gaurav Bajpai 1 , Rajesh Purohit 1 , R. S. Rana 1, Saurabh Singh Rajpurohit 2 and Ajeet Rana 3 1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India. 2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Marudhar Engineering College, Raiser, Bikaner, India. 3 Student, 2 Mechanical Engineering Department, BUIT, BU, Bhopal, India. E mail: bajpai2008gaurav@gmail.com; rpurohit73@gmail.com Abstract Metal matrix composites are light-weight, having high strength and wear resistance. Metal matrix composites are composed of a metallic base material which is reinforced with ceramic fibre, whisker or particulate as reinforcement material. Now a days, weight reduction and strength enhancement is the main concerns, for increasing the use of composite materials in various industries. Today composite materials are widely used in several industries such as automobile, aerospace, defence, insulator and radar domes. They find widespread applications in various systems viz. mechanical, structural, tribological, electromagnetic etc. In the present work nano-SiC particulates have been used as reinforcement in aluminium metal matrix with different weight % of Nano SiC. The composites were fabricated using powder metallurgy process through cold isostatic compaction chamber. The various properties viz. hardness, density, porosity, compressive strength and indirect tensile strength were measured. The microstructure of polished and etched surfaces of powder metal Al-Nano SiC composite samples was studied using scanning electron microscope. Micrograph shows the uniform distribution of Nano SiC particles in the Aluminium matrix. ©2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Conference Committee Members of 5th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization (ICMPC 2016). Keywords: Cold isostatic compaction (CIP); Al-Nano SiC composites; Powder metallurgy process; Scanning electron microscope 1. Introduction The increasing demand for light weight, high strength materials in technologically advanced industries supported by the advances in the field of material science. Due to their light-weight, high strength, stiffness and resistance to high temperature, aluminium based metal matrix composites (MMCs) have been extensively used for automotive, aerospace and military applications [1]. The reinforcement of silicon carbide (SiC), boron carbide (B 4 C) and aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) in MMCs have significant advantage over conventional materials. Generally, themicron size ceramic particles are used to improve the yield and ultimate strength of the metals or alloys. However the ductility of the MMCs decreases with high ceramic particle concentration. Nano-particle reinforcements can significantly improve the mechanical properties of the matrix by more effectively promoting the particle hardening * Corresponding author. E-mail address: bajpai2008gaurav@gmail.com,