Experimental Study of Deflection and Surface Roughness in Thin Wall Machining of Aluminum Alloy

Abstract

Thin walled structures and other monolithic components are used in aerospace as well as automobile industries. They have structural homogeneity and excellent strength to weight ratio. Ribs, stingers, spars and bulk heads are few other monolithic components. These monolithic components are also used as structural parts. More workpiece material is removed in end milling, which is possible athigh speeds. In thin wall machining, thickness of wall is reduced graduallyduring cutting, which makes ita very complicated process. At high speed, deflection of the machinedthin wall work piece is expected due to end mill forces, machining error and reduced machining accuracy. In this current study, the thin wall aluminium workpiece is fabricated using high end milling speeds and deflections as well as surface roughness of thin walls are investigated.The work piece is machined on conventional milling machine. Experiments are carried out to study the deflection and surface roughness of the thin walls of the work piece at varying feed rate, speed and depth of cut. Deflections and surface roughness of thin walls are measured by optical microscope and non-contacting surface profilometer. The effects of process parameters on the deflection and surface roughness of thin walls are analysed by ANOVA regression technique.