MACHINABLITY STUDIES OF MAGNESIUM ALLOY

Abstract

During the last few decades the world has seen a rapid growth of application of magnesium and its alloys almost in every field of today's industry. Magnesium alloy developments have traditionally been driven by aerospace industry requirements for light weight materials to operate under increasingly demanding conditions. Magnesium alloys have always been attractive to designers due to their low density and high strength, high strength/weight ratio, high thermal conductivity, high dimensional stability, good electromagnetic shielding characteristics, and high damping characteristics, etc.,. In recent years surface texture has been recognized as being significant in many fields. In particular the surface roughness is an important factor in determining the satisfactory performance of the workpiece. The importance of monitoring the cutting force in turning has been well recognized in machine tool communities. A considerable amount of investigations has been directed towards the prediction and measurement of cutting forces. That is because the cutting forces generated during metal cutting have a direct influence on the generation of heat, and thus tool wear, quality of machined surface and accuracy of the workpiece. The present work is focused on the turning of non reinforced cast magnesium alloy AZ91C to analyze the surface finish and cutting forces which are influenced by tool geometry and process parameters within a safe limit. All the experiments are carried out without using cooling lubricants. The experimental study shows that surface finish is largely influenced by the nose radius of the tool. Surface finish tends to improve, while cutting forces tends to decrease with increase of cutting speed, reduction of feed and depth of cut in the investigated range. iii