Method and apparatus for manufacturing composite material using pressure chamber and casting chamber.

摘要

A composite material is manufactured from a formed mass (2) of reinforcing material and matrix metal by introducing the reinforcing material mass into a pressure chamber (4) and holding it there, introducing molten matrix metal (6) into the pressure chamber so as to surround the reinforcing material mass, moving the reinforcing material mass from the pressure chamber into a casting chamber (3) of substantially smaller volume than the pressure chamber while it is still being surrounded by molten matrix metal, and then allowing the molten matrix metal to solidify while applying pressure, If the reinforcing material mass is preheated before being put into the pressure chamber, it can be kept away from the walls of the pressure chamber until after the molten matrix metal has been poured into the pressure chamber and thus will not lose heat to them; and, since the casting chamber can quite tightly conform to the size and shape of the reinforcing material mass, little extra matrix metal needs to be solidified around the reinforcing material mass. Accordingly the resulting composite material can be easily isolated without the need for much post machining.