  The present paper is an effort to culminate the status, scopes and challenges
in the development of ferrous metal matrix composites (FMMCs). The FMMCs are
old but less in use than the non-ferrous metal matrix composites (NFMMCs), as
far as literature and actual applications are concerned. Therefore, this
stimulates the exploration of the reasons behind the scarcity of literature and
field applications of the FMMCs, which must be investigated scientifically. The
powder metallurgy route is the most used process for fabricating iron and steel
based FMMCs by reinforcing particulates. At the same time, the in-situ method
has been used for the fabrication and cast iron-based FMMCs. The main
characteristics being considered during the designing and fabrication of FMMCs
are wear resistance and improved specific mechanical properties. To fabricate
cheaper and eco-friendly FMMCs, traditionally used costly reinforcements such
as SiC, WC, TiC, SiO2, TiO2, TiB2 are required to be replaced by inexpensive
industrial wastes like red-mud, fly-ashes and grinding swarf. The data
extracted from the web of science exhibited that the FMMCs have been researched
less than the NFMMCs. The increasing number of research papers on FMMCs
indicates a bright future. FMMCs are going to be a favourite topic among
researchers and manufacturers. Higher strengths, wear resistance, dimensional
stability at elevated temperatures, and, most importantly, the lower cost will
put forward the FMMCs as a stiff competitor of NFMMCs. In developing and mass
production of FMMCs for field applications, challenges like oxidation and
higher weight still require special research efforts.
