In this work aluminum–alumina composite material was first produced by mechanical alloying method and then physical and mechanical properties of the products were investigated. For this purpose the aluminum and alumina powders were charged in horizontal ball mill and milled at different times. In order to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of the processed powders, powder metallurgy samples were produced by single action compaction of the powders. The compacted green samples were sintered by an inert atmosphere furnace. Mechanical tests such as compression, microhardness, wear resistance besides physical tests such as dimensional stability and electrical resistivity were done on the milled composites. The results show that mechanical and physical properties of the milled aluminum base composites depend strongly on milling time so that increasing milling time causes to change the values of the mentioned properties. But in steady-state stage increasing milling time has not significant effect on the properties.  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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