Experimental Investigation on Rotary Ultrasonic Face Grinding of SiCp/Al Composites.

SiCp/Al composites have been widely used in many fields such as aerospace, automobile, advanced weapon system, etc. But this kind of material, especially with high volume fraction, is difficult to machine due to the reinforced particles existing in matrix, which has limited its further application. Rotary ultrasonic machining (RUM) has many excellent features and it has never been used to machine SiCp/Al composites. In order to improve the machinability and application of SiCp/Al composites, the rotary ultrasonic face grinding experiments of SiCp/Al composites reinforced with 45% volume SiC particles were carried out to investigate cutting force, surface quality, tool wear, and abrasive chip shapes. The experimental results indicate that ultrasonic vibration could reduce cutting force, surface roughness, surface defects, and increase plastic removal ratio. The cutting force could be lowered by an average of 13.86% and the surface roughness could be lowered by an average of 11.53%. The examined results of tool wear patterns suggest that tool wear is mainly caused by grain breakage and grain fall-off. Grinding wheel blockage and grinding burn were not observed in machining process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]