Volume 7 Issue 2 (June 2020)

The performance evaluations of any manufacturing materials are significantly affected by their quality of surface as well as mechanical and metallurgical properties. MMCs are preferable material for the automobile and aircraft industries due to its excellent properties such as lightweight, high strength to weight ratio and high wear resistance. However, the presence of hard reinforcement particles in the matrix alloy makes it difficult to machine, which leads to the microstructural variation and extent of the subsurface damage. In the present study, three different rotational speed (varies from 200 rpm to 600 rpm) is used to turn the surface of previously in-house made hybrid MMC A359/2%B₄C/2%Al₂O₃ on CNC lathe SPRINT 16TC made by BATLIBOI. An attempt is made to examine the 3D surface visualization and generate the surface roughness report by Micro-Prof FRT optical profilometer, surface topographical by Olympus Lext OLS 3100 laser confocal microscope for surface characterization. The results reveal the smooth machined surface with surface roughness ranges between 1.5 μm to 2.9 μm. The topographical images revealed a flat surface full of repetitive cutting marks parallel to each other and along the direction of cutting. There are no significant topographical differences are varying rotational speed.

Keywords: Aluminum alloy A359; Metal matrix composite; 3D Surface visualization; Surface topography; CNC turning