In this paper, plain aluminum was chosen as matrix alloy and graphene reinforced aluminum alloy composites was successfully prepared via powder metallurgy approach. Micro-milling experiments were conducted to explore the effect of varying graphene nanoflakes (GNFs) content (0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% by weight) on the machinability of composites and their machining results were compared with that of plain aluminum. Chip morphology, milling force, and machined surface morphology were used as the machinability measures. Experiment results showed that when the content of GNFs is less than 1.5%, the grain refinement of GNFs plays a major role. The hardness and density of the composites are increased. When the content of GNFs is more than 1.5%, the agglomeration phenomenon is obvious, which reduces the hardness and density of the composites. Micro-milling results show that the milling force is the highest when the GNFs content is 1%, and curling degree of chips increased as FPT increase for a certain content of graphene of composites. Furthermore, when the content of GNFs in composites is more than 1%, the surface roughness of milling grooves is greatly improved, which may be related to the lubrication of graphene and the formation of continuous chips.

Abstract. Two types of steels containing rare earths (RE) were smelted by the vacuum induction furnace with magnesia crucible, RE metals were added in liquid steel at the end of the smelting process, chemical compositions of the test steels were analyzed, and inclusions were observed by scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive spectrometer. The experimental results show that the yields of RE have no direct relationship with the oxygen and sulphur contents, but decrease with the increasing of RE addition amounts. The reaction between RE and MgO (the material of the crucible) is the major RE consumption mode, parts of the outer refractory are peeled off and become inclusions in the test steels. Because of the excessively active chemical properties, rare earths trend to react with refractory materials and metallurgical slag. Therefore, it is very difficult to utilize RE in the industrial production processes with con-casting, adding RE in the non-slag and non-refractory special processes may be feasible.