Effects of machining parameters on the quality in machining of aluminium alloys thin plates

Abstract

Nowadays, the industry looks for sustainable processes to ensure a more environmentally friendly production. For that reason, more and more aeronautical companies are replacing chemical milling in the manufacture of skin panels and thin plates components. This is a challenging operation that requires meeting tight dimensional tolerances and differs from a rigid body machining due to the low stiffness of the part. In order to fill the gap of literature research on this field, this work proposes an experimental study of the effect of the depth of cut, the feed rate and the cutting speed on the quality characteristics of the machined parts and on the cutting forces produced during the process. Whereas surface roughness values meet the specifications for all the machining conditions, an appropriate cutting parameters selection is likely to lead to a reduction of the final thickness deviation by up to 40% and the average cutting forces by up to a 20%, which consequently eases the clamping system and reduces machine consumption. Finally, an experimental model to control the process quality based on monitoring the machine power consumption is proposed.