Dust Generation Evaluation by a Predicting Model of Cutting Forces and Machining Temperature during Orthogonal Cutting of Aluminum Alloys

Abstract

Machining processes must not only be efficient in terms of technical requirements and economic problems for the current industry, but they must also be sustainable in terms of environment and operator safety. The use of cutting fluids during turning is costly and can be hazardous for the operator. However, dry machining induces excessive friction on the tool/workpiece and chip/tool interfaces, leading to an increase in the fine and ultrafine particles generation which deteriorate air quality in the workshop. This dust can constitute a real risk to the operator’s health and shorten the reliability of the machine-tools components. Knowing the cutting conditions leading to reduced metallic particle generation could contribute to improving the occupational safety of the machining processes. This article presents experimental and theoretical investigations on dust generation phenomenon during dry turning of aluminum alloys. The main object is to evaluate the dust generation as a function of machining conditions through the temperature and force cutting prediction induced by dry machining in order to determine safe and economic machining process windows. The cutting conditions effects on the temperature increasing in orthogonal cutting have been studied using various theoretical models. This increase in temperature controls the dust generation during dry machining. A theoretical model is proposed in this work to study the correlation between cutting mechanisms, plastic deformation and dust generation. The model predictions were compared with the experimental data and the accuracy of the obtained result is well investigated due to the simplification used in the proposed model. The model was capable of predicting the data with a correlation greater than 94.5% for orthogonal cutting of 7075-T6, 6061- T6 aluminum alloys. Also, a comparison was made between the proposed model and another model based on the constitutive equation of Needleman-Lemonds. Difference among the prediction from the two models was relatively small, suggesting that these models have a broad common basis.