Investigations of the effects of aging treatment on the machinability of particulate-reinforced aluminum matrix composite

摘要

Metal-matrix composites(MMC) have received considerable attentions in recent years for their advanced mechanical properties and the ability to operate at elevated temperatures. However, owing to the high tool wear rate caused by the hard inclusions, machining MMCs to a specified shape and dimension is still a difficult task to be accomplished. This study aims to find out the influence of aging conditions have on the machinability of MMCs. Aluminum alloy(A356) reinforced with 10vol.% SiC particles metal matrix composite(A356/SiCp MMC) is treated under different aging conditions to alter their matrix microstructure and is subsequently cut(turned) under various machining conditions with cutting tools such as Carbide(with TiN/Al{sup}2O{sup}3/TiC coating), Cermet, Al{sup}2O{sup}3(with TiC coating), CBN and PCD. The results showed that, under the tested machining conditions, PCD and CBN demonstrated relatively good wear resistance while all the other tools suffered severe flank wear (>2mm/km). CBN tools exhibit the best overall performance in the tested tools and machining conditions.