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Cutting force, tool wear and surface finish in drilling metal matrix composites
J P Davim and A Monteiro Baptista Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part E: Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering 2001 215: 177 DOI: 10.1243/0954408011530334 The online version of this article can be found at: http://pie.sagepub.com/content/215/2/177

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177

Technical Note

Cutting force, tool wear and surface nish in drilling metal matrix composites
1

J P Davim 1* and A Monteiro Baptista2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, FEUP, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

Abstract: In this paper the evolution of the cutting force, tool wear and surface nish, measured when drilling the metal matrix composite A356/20/SiCp-T6, is presented. The experimental work was developed through the continuous measurement of the torque with an appropriate piezoelectric dynamometer and the results were used to derive the cutting power (ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 kW) and the speci c cutting pressure, Ks (17003500 N/mm2). The tool wear type was identi ed and its evolution with cutting time was measured for different sets of cutting conditions, using polycrystalline diamond drills. The holes surface nish was evaluated and very good results, exceeding standard values for drilling, were obtained (R a between 0.25 and 1.2 mm). Keywords: drilling, metal matrix composites (MMCs), polycrystalline diamond (PCD), tool wear, cutting forces, surface nish

INTRODUCTION

The expression metal matrix composites (MMCs) covers a very wide range of materials, from relatively simple reinforcement of castings with a low cost refractory wool to complex continuous bre lay-ups in exotic alloys. Clearly the applications will also vary widely to re ect the costproperty relationships offered by each type of MMC. The properties of the resulting composite are generally controlled by three critical components: the matrix, the reinforcement and the interface. Several considerations, which arise with respect to fabrication, processing and service performance of composites, relate to processes that are taking place in the interfacial region between the matrix and reinforcement [1, 2]. Among modern composite materials, particle-reinforced MMCs are nding increased application owing to their very advantageous properties, including good mechanical properties and good wear resistance. SiCreinforced aluminium is among the most common, and several compositions for the matrix are available commercially [3].
The MS was received on 29 February 2000 and was accepted after revision for publication on 27 November 2000. *Corresponding author: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Santiago, 3810193 Aveiro, Portugal.
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An ongoing problem with MMCs is that they are dif cult to machine, owing to the hardness and abrasive nature of the SiC or other reinforcing particles. The particles used in MMCs are harder than tungsten carbide (WC), the main constituent of hard metal, and even than the majority of the cutting tool materials. Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) is an exception, as it is 34 times harder than SiC. This is why PCD is recommended by many researchers [47] who have studied the drilling of these materials. An especially abrasive composite has been chosen for this study, following the authors previous work [810].

MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

The composition of the work material is aluminium with 7.0 per cent silicon and 0.4 per cent magnesium, reinforced with 20 per cent by volume silicon carbide (SiC) particles, having an average dimension of about 20 mm. The material was T6 heat treated, solutionized and aged, 5 h at 154 C. A typical microstructure of the aluminium matrix composite tested, A356/20/SiCp-T6, obtained by continuous casting, is shown in Fig. 1. Randomly distributed angular reinforcement particles, with some clustering, are
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Fig. 1

Microstructure of the aluminium matrix composite tested, A356/20/SiCp-T6

clearly visible (black). Fine precipitates in the matrix are also present, but more dif cult to see, as they are smaller in dimension and grey coloured, slightly darker than the matrix. A series of drilling experiments were carried out on a vertical miller with Heidenhain CNC controller (continuous speed control up to 3500 r/min and 2 kW spindle power). The drills (according to DIN 338) with PCD inserts were used to cut holes of diameter 5 mm in 15 mm thick MMC discs. The drill geometry is 130 point angle and 20 helix angle. Table 1 presents the drilling conditions used during the cooled tests (emulsion Alusol-B 8 per cent). A Kistler piezoelectric dynamometer with the appropriate signal conditioner, including charge ampli er, has been used. Several different programs for data acquisition, based on the software LabVIEW, have been developed and used. They allow direct and continuous recording and simultaneous graphical visualization of the evolution of the torque and the feed force. The cutting tool wear (width of the lip wear land at 1/4 the tool radius apart from the corner of the drill, as presented in the schema of Fig. 2) was measured by means of a Mitutoyo shop microscope with 30 magni cation and 1 mm resolution. The holes surface nish was evaluated (according to ISO 4287/1) with a pro lometer (Homeltester T500) in the axial direction of the hole, using a 0.8 mm cut-off.
Table 1 Drilling conditions with PCD
Cutting speed (m/min) 30 40 50 50 50 50 Feed (mm/rev) 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.05 0.15 0.2

To evaluate the wear resistance of the PCD drills when machining the continuous casting composite, the surface of the tool was observed and measured at regular intervals, after each set of 10 holes. The dominant wear type in drilling has been identi ed by these direct observations of the worn surface of the tool. It is an abrasive form of ank wear in the drill, characterized by scratching in the sliding direction, which can be measured as Vbmax. An example of this wear type in a drill is presented in Fig. 2. The wear land width is not uniform along the edge. It is smaller near the axe and it grows very sharply near the corner. To obtain a consistent measure of the tool wear, a precise position of the measuring point has been chosen, as shown in the schema of Fig. 2, and the average of the wear of the two edges was used. In the machining of MMCs the predominant wear mechanisms are two-body abrasion and three-body abrasion [4]. The resistance to abrasion of the cutting tools material depends directly on the relative hardness of the materials involved. The silicon carbide used as

Rotational speed (r/min) 1910 2546 3183 3183 3183 3183

Fig. 2

The wear land on the tip of a PCD tool. Drill lip, after 300 holes (cutting time 15 min), Vc 40 m/min and f 0.1 mm/rev
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reinforcement in this MMC is harder than tungsten carbide and than the generality of the materials for cutting tools, except, for instance, PCD. However, PCD inserts employed in drills, as well as the genuine PCD, have cobalt as cement and still tungsten carbides, which hardness is lower than that of the SiC reinforcement particles. Therefore, the connection between the cobalt and tungsten carbide can be damaged by the hard particles, degrading the tool. The disintegration of the insert material occurs next to the cutting edge. The mechanical damage to the cutting tool material comes from the kinetic energy transferred from (or to) the reinforcement particles to (or from) the cutting edge and depends mainly on the particles dimensions and the relative cutting speed [5]. The predominant kind of wear in the tools when machining these composites having been identi ed, wear curves were obtained under different cutting conditions (speed and feed). These curves, obtained with the drills with PCD inserts for several cutting speeds and feeds, can be seen in Fig. 3. The increase of the cutting speed (with the same feed, f 0.1 mm/rev) gives increased wear, although this is not a very signi cant and clear result in the range of the tested speed. For example, at a cutting speed of 40 m/min, it is possible to perform the drilling for 14 min, corresponding to 300 blind holes (approximately 12 mm deep) to a wear Vbmax 0.15 mm. When the sliding distance is compared for the same extent of wear, for example Vbmax 0.1 mm, the highest value is observed for the lowest cutting speed Vc 30 m/min (225 m corresponding to 7.5 min), but the opposite occurs for Vc 40 m/min (160 m, 4 min) and Vc 50 m/min (200 m, 4 min). The narrow variation of the cutting velocity, which has been imposed by experimental limitations (maximum rotational speed of the machine and drill diameter), does not lead to a clear conclusion. Similar work by the present authors, for the turning operation with the cutting

velocity ranging from 250 to 700 m/min, clearly shows the increase of tool wear with this parameter [10]. The open symbols in Fig. 3 show the effect of the feed at the same cutting speed (Vc 50 m/min). With the single exception, f 0.1 and f 0.15 mm/rev appearing in reversed positions, the smaller feed leads to higher wear. This observation agrees with other experimental results concerning MMC machining but has no easy explanation. In fact, for almost all the test piecetool material combinations, increasing the feed increases the wear. This is the normal and expected behaviour that results from the increasing severity of the contact conditions. The particular trend observed with the composites may result from the fracture of the hard and brittle reinforcement particles, leading to reduced abrasion on the tool. However, no clear evidence of fractured particles has been found in the chips, and the work surface has not been observed by scanning electron microscopy. Another explanation could be based on the increasing plasticity of the aluminium matrix. Could the matrix plastically deform over the reinforcement particles preventing, to some extent, its abrasive action on the tool? This possibility is consistent with the very good surface nish of the holes referred to later in this text. On the basis of the measured torque values the cutting power, P, has been evaluated through the following expression, where M is the torque and o is the angular velocity: P Mo 1

In Fig. 4 the evolution of this function with time is presented for different drilling conditions. A slightly growing trend can be observed in the majority of the situations. This is an expected result associated with the degradation of the cutting edge and the wear of the tool. For the same feed, increasing cutting speed increases the power as a general observation. Some exceptions are

Fig. 3
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Wear curves for PCD drill

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Fig. 4

Evolution of the cutting power with cutting time

observed for Vc 40 and 50 m/min at 5 and around 12 min of cutting time, but they are not signi cant and can be considered as a result of a reasonable experimental dispersion. For the same cutting speed, Vc 50 m/min, the cutting power increases with feed. Another very useful parameter in machining operations is the speci c cutting pressure, Ks. This physical quantity is widely used in machining databases and reference books, and for the drilling operation it can be obtained from the following equation, where M is the torque, f is the feed and d is the diameter of the drill: Ks 8M fd 2 2

A graphical representation of the speci c cutting pressure against cutting time is presented in Fig. 5. The time

dependence of Ks (a growing trend in almost all situations) is decidedly more evident than that observed for the cutting power. In this case the lower values correspond to the highest feed, and vice versa, as usually observed. For the drilling investigations of the machining quality, two aspects must be considered: the surface nish and burr formation. In Fig. 6 the evolution of the roughness parameters R a (average roughness) and R t (maximum peak-to-valley height), measured every 10 holes obtained with PCD inserts, is presented. The R a values, for the entire set of tested cutting conditions, varied approximately between 0.25 and 1.2 mm and the R t values between 4 and 13 mm. Those results can be considered very good since the best values indicated in different national standards for expected R a in drilling are about 0.8 mm.

Fig. 5
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Evolution of the speci c cutting pressure, Ks , with cutting time

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Fig. 6

Evolution of the surface nish parameters with cutting time: (a) arithmetic mean roughness (R a ); (b) maximum peak-to-valley height (R t )

As could be expected for geometrical reasons, the increase of the feed determined the increase of R a and R t values. For the same feed, the increase of the cutting speed should diminish these values, as usually observed in machining operations. However, the present results do not agree with this assertion. The best surface nish is obtained (with 0.1 mm/rev) for the lower cutting speed (30 m/min) and the worst is obtained for the intermediate one (40 m/min). A positive result of the drilling with PCD is the absence of burr formation at the entrance of the holes. Figure 7 illustrates the clean appearance of the cut. For other types of tool materials, K10/20 cemented carbide and especially TiN-coated high speed steel, burr formation started with the very rst holes. Short chips, such as those presented in Fig. 8, are formed when drilling the A356/20/SiCp-T6 composite. From the machinability point of view, since short chips
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Fig. 7

Appearance of the aspects of three holes (diameter of 5 mm) on the surface of the tested MMC, A356/20/ SiCp-T6. After 16 holes (cutting time 1 min), Vc 40 m/min and f 0.1 mm/rev
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Fig. 8

Typical A356/20/SiCp-T6 drilling chips formed at Vc 40 m/min and f 0.1 mm/rev. Major dimension 4 mm

can easily detach themselves from the workpiece and prevent the tool and workpiece damage caused by re-cutting, this type of chip is more desirable if compatible with the speci ed surface nish. Using the conventional Taylor approach and the results described above, it is possible to establish the PCD tool life for drilling this particular composite. A wear limit Vbmax 0.125 mm was used as the life criterion to ensure all the quality aspects, namely the absence of burr. Figures 9a and b present the PCD drill life curves as function of feed and cutting speed respectively. The most important remark on such curves is the reverse slope (positive) of the rst one. This is a direct consequence of the already pointed observation concerning the in uence of the feed on the wear of tools machining metal matrix composites, which is the opposite to what can be observed for the generality of metallic materials.

Fig. 9

PCD drill life curves for Vb max 0.125 mm as function of (a) feed and (b) cutting speed
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CONCLUSIONS
3 4

The following conclusions can be drawn from the results of this study: 1. The predominant wear in drilling this type of SiCreinforced aluminium composite is developed in the ank face of the tools. 2. The abrasive wear mechanism is predominant in the machining of these materials. Occasionally, some adhesions are also observed. 3. When drilling MMCs, smaller feed leads to higher wear of the tools. 4. The holes surface nish of the drilled samples deteriorates with increasing feed at a constant cutting speed, but its correlation with cutting speed is not well de ned. 5. The short type of chips produced in drilling aluminium matrix composites renders this material well suited for continuous operation.

REFERENCES
10 1 Taya, M. and Arsenault, R. Metal Matrix Composites, 1989, pp. 19 (Pergamon, Oxford). 2 Clyne, T. and Withers, P. An Introduction to Metal Matrix

Composites , Cambridge Solid State Science Series, 1995, pp. 110 (Cambridge University Press). Chadwick, G. A. and Heat, P. Machining metal matrix composites. Metal Mater., 1990, 6, 7376. Cronjager, L. and Meister, D. Drilling of bre and particle reinforced aluminium. In Composite Material Technology , Vol. 37, 1991, pp. 185189 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York). Lane, G. The effect of different reinforcements on PCD tool life for aluminium composites. In Proceedings of the Machining of Composite Materials Symposium, ASM Materials Week, Chicago, Illinois, 1992, pp. 315. Jawaid, A., Barnes, S. and Ghadimzadehs, S. Drilling of particulate aluminium silicon carbide metal matrix composites. In Proceedings of the Machining of Composite Materials Symposium, ASM Materials Week, Chicago, Illinois, 1992, pp. 3645. Morin, E., Masounove, J. and Laufer, E. Effect of drill wear on cutting forces in the drilling of metalmatrix composites. Wear, 1995, 184 , 1116. Baptista, A. M. and Davim, J. P. Drilling aluminium matrix composites. In Tenth International Conference on Composite Materials, ICCM-10, Vancouver, Canada, 1995, pp. 581588. Baptista, A. M. and Davim, J. P. Wear of tooling materials when turning and drilling aluminium matrix composites. In Wear of Materials 97, San Diego, California, 1997, poster. Davim, J. P. and Baptista, A. M. Relationship between cutting force and PCD cutting tool wear in machining silicon carbide reinforced aluminium. J. Mater. Processing Technol. , 2000, 103 , 417423.

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