ABSTRACT
In recent years and due to advanced fabrication techniques of composites, many of these functional materials have been brought to the forefront with more benefits. Amongst composites, special attention has been paid to metal matrix composites (MMCs). Reinforced aluminum MMCs with nanoparticles are among the new MMCs with a wide range of industry applications. The combination of aluminum as a soft, lightweight, and low-strength material with silicon carbide (SiC), bismuth (Bi), and tin (Sn) particles, which are hard and high-strength materials, may lead to the generation of high-strength and lightweight material, which can be classified as difficult to cut material. According to literature, limited studies have been reported on the effects of various reinforcing elements on the machinability of Al-MMC, in principle tool wear morphology and size and surface quality. According to statistical analysis, the effect of cutting parameters and reinforcing particles on the surface quality attributes is not statistically significant. In contrast, the effect of cutting parameters and reinforcing particles on the tool flank wear is significant and reliable. In addition, it is observed that the reinforcing particles and cutting speed have the most significant effects, and the lubrication mode has a minor impact on the tool flank wear.
ABSTRACT
Rapid tool wear and limited tool life are major problems when machining Inconel 718, which still need further attention. Amongst the reported strategies, limited studies have been reported on optimizing initial cutting conditions by means of tool life improvement. Therefore, in this work, the tool wear progress and tool life were investigated by varying the initial conditions in the transition period, which was set at four seconds. The transition point was discovered by previous works by the authors. After the transition point, similar cutting conditions were used as the reference condition. The tool wear morphology and size were recorded and analyzed in each condition. It was revealed that applying a lower cutting speed and feed rate in the transition period led to improved tool life as compared to the reference condition. In other words, the use of optimum levels of cutting parameters in the transition period of the cutting process may enhance tool life at higher cutting time. For instance, initial feed rate (0.15 mm/rev) and cutting speed (25 m/min) led to the improvement in the ultimate tool life by about 67% and 50%, respectively. Besides, applying the lower initial cutting speed, i.e., 25 m/min, increased the tool life by about 50% when the insert reached the maximum flank wear (vBmax) of 300 µm in comparison with those at higher initial cutting speeds. This phenomenon may lead to better insight into the effect of the influence of the initial cutting conditions in the transition period on tool life when machining hard-to-cut materials. Moreover, the built-up edge (BUE) was exhibited as the primary wear mode in all cutting conditions.
