Determination of Optimum Cutting Parameters for Surface Roughness in Turning AL-B4C Composites

Abstract

Many materials such as alloys, composites find their applications on the basis of machinability, cost and availability. In the present work, machinability of Aluminium 1100 and Boron carbide (AL+ B4C) composite material is examined by using lathe tool dynometers (BANKA Lathe) by varying the cutting parameters like spindle speed, Depth of cut and Feed rate in 3 levels. Also, surface roughness is measured against the weight % of reinforcement in the composite (0, 4 and 8 %). From the study it is observed that the hardness of a composite material increases with increase in weight % of reinforcement material (B4C) by 26.27 and 66.7 % respectively. The addition of reinforcement materials influences the machinability. The cutting force in both X and Z direction were also found increment with the reinforcement percentage.