Abrasive Assisted Electrochemical Machining of Al-B₄C Nanocomposite

Abstract

Aluminium reinforced with SiC, Al2O3 and B4C etc. possesses an attractive combination of properties such as high wear resistance, high strength to weight ratio and high specific stiffness. Among the various reinforced materials used for aluminium, B4C has outperformed all others in terms of hardening effect. Particle size reduction of B4C is found to have positive impact on the material hardness. In the view of physical properties, B4C has less density than that of SiC and Al2O3, which makes it an attractive reinforcement for aluminium and its alloys for light weight applications. In this work, Al nano B4C composite prepared by ultrasonic cavitation method was machined by Abrasive assisted electrochemical machining using cylindrical copper tool electrodes with SiC abrasive medium. In this paper, attempts have been made to model and optimize process parameters in Abrasive assisted Electro-Chemical Machining of Aluminium-Boron carbide nano composite. Optimization of process parameters is based on the statistical techniques using Response Surface Methodology with four independent input parameters such as voltage, current, abrasive concentration and feed rate were used to assess the process performance in terms of material removal rate and surface finish. The obtained results were compared with abrasive assisted electro chemical machining of Aluminium-Boron carbide micro composite and the effect of particle size on the process parameters was analyzed.

Hybrid Abrasive Electrochemical Grinding Machining of alloy steel K110

“…The electrolyte is usually a mixture of NaNO3 or NaCl salt dissolved in water. It is extensively utilized for machining of cutting tools, medical components, automotive and aerospace components due to its advantages, such as the absence of thermal damage, good surface finish, high metal removal rate, and long wheel life [1,2].…”

“…Metal reinforced ceramic materials such as Al-Al2O3, Al-SiC, Al-B4C, and WC-Co groups are not suitable to machine by the electrochemical (ECM) and electrochemical grinding (ECG) machining process for two reasons. The first is that materials are non-conductive while the second is that they are very hard [2][3][4][5][6][7] Recently, more interests have been focused on increasing the material removal rate, and improving the machining accuracy. K. Rajkumar, et al have studied the effect of using SiC of 50 µm particle size as abrasive in the abrasive assisted electrochemical machining process, and showed that abrasive assisted electrolyte aids in removing the precipitates, which gets formed during the electrochemical machining specially at high voltages.…”