Investigation on the Characteristics of Surface Quality on Machining of Hybrid Metal Matrix Composite (Al-SiC-B4C)

Abstract

In this paper turning experiments on machining of particle reinforced Hybrid Metal Matrix composite (MMC) have been carried out. The reinforcement particles selected are Silicon-Carbide of 10% by weight and Boron-Carbide of 5% by weight respectively. Stir casting method is followed to prepare cylindrical rods of specific length and diameter. Poly Crystalline Diamond (PCD) insert of grade 1600 is used for turning operations. Taguchi's method of design of experiment is followed by using orthogonal array L9. Three level machining parameters selected are cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut. The influence of these parameters on machined surface quality is determined by measuring the surface roughness of the workpiece by surface roughness tester. Using S-N ratio method ranking of the cutting parameters are done and it is observed that for surface quality feed rate is the most influencing parameter followed by cutting speed and by the depth of cut. The optimal cutting conditions are arrived as feed rate 0.1mm/rev, cutting speed as 90 m/min and depth of cut as 0.5mm. The S-N plot is drawn to show the characteristics of each parameter with respect to surface roughness. The results are validated by analysis of variance method (ANOVA) and the percentage of contribution of feed, speed and depth of cut are determined