Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Spark Plasma–Sintered Titanium Composites Filled with Different Al-Cr-Fe Quasicrystal Contents

A new type of Ti composite filled with Al-Cr-Fe quasicrystals (QCs) was developed via a spark plasma sintering process. The mechanical and tribological properties of the Ti/QC composites were systematically investigated. It was found that the hardness of the Ti/QC composites significantly increased with increased QC content due to the higher hardness of incorporated QCs than that of the Ti matrix. The tribological results clearly showed that the wear of the Ti/QC composites apparently decreased with increased QC content to 20 wt% as a result of the increased wear resistance of the composites. An excessive loading of 30 wt% QCs resulted in the decreased wear resistance of the Ti/QC composites. It could be concluded that the incorporation of QCs significantly improved the mechanical and tribological properties of the Ti/QC composites with an optimized QC content of 20 wt%.