Machinability study of recycled aluminum cans and machining chips

Abstract

More and more, the recycling and recovery of many materials are becoming economically and ecologically viable. This is particularly true of aluminum alloys. While the mechanical properties and the field performance of recycled alloys are increasingly well documented, the same cannot be said of their machinability. This article presents the results of a comparative experimental study on the machinability of two recycled foundry aluminum alloys: one from aluminum can covers and another from chips produced during machining. A full factorial design of experiments was used to study the influence of lubrication and machining parameters on surface roughness (Ra and Rt) and chip morphology when turning the two recycled aluminum alloys. The results were analyzed using Pareto analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA), after which roughness prediction models were proposed. The results show a clear difference in the machinability of the two alloys, suggesting the need for a separation of the aluminum alloys used during recovery.