Safety in Rough Milling of Magnesium Alloys Using Tools with Variable Cutting Edge Geometry

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study investigating the problem of safety in dry milling magnesium alloy AZ91D. Selected indicators of safe machining were analyzed, including time to ignition, ignition temperature, chip mass and morphology. Experiments were performed using carbide end mills with a variable edge helix angle. It was observed that magnesium alloys could be dry milled without the risk of chip ignition. The milling process conducted with the axial depth of cut a p set to 6 mm was found to be optimum (a great amount of leading fraction A was produced). Unfortunately, however, some machining conditions proved to be inductive to the formation of chip powder known as magnesium dust. For most cases, chips obtained using the tool with λ s 50° had higher unit mass than those obtained with λ s 20°. Metallographic images of chips confirmed the safe range of the machining parameters employed (no partial melting or burn marks were observed). Determined on a specially designed test stand outside of the machine tool, time to ignition can be an effective parameter for performing simplified chip ignition simulations.