Electrical discharge machining of aa4032 hybrid metal matrix composites

Abstract

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) have been investigated after 1980s with the practical advancement in nuclear and automobile area due to the largest technological development, materials with their higher specific strength, toughness, wear and corrosion resistance, exceptional operation in hightemperature regions and good machinability. For many years, aluminium alloys especially Al-Si, Al-Mg and Al-Cu have been frequently used in industries for variety of applications due to their admirable properties. AA4032 are being used in automobile industry for piston head application. The major requirement for this material to be used in the automotive sector as a pison head are improved mechanical properties. In order to improve the properties of alloy, the research work has shifted to composite maerials. Hence there is a need for the production of new material. In this research work AA4032 based composites are prepared and their mechanical and machinability characterics are studied. Particulate reinforced aluminium MMCs have overcome the disadvantages such as asymmetry of microstructure, contact with the matrix material and thus, they become the most desirable material in industrial production and applications. In this present work, Al-Si alloy (AA 4032) is selected as a matrix material and titanium carbide (TiC) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) are selected as reinforcement particulates. MMCs are prepared by blending of 3 wt. % and 6 wt. % of TiC particles with AA 4032 and hybrid metal matrix composites (HMMCs) are prepared by adding 3 wt. % of TiC particles and 2 wt. % of h-BN particles and 6 wt. % of TiC particles and 2 wt. % of h-BN particles with AA 4032. The fabrication of composite materials have been fabricated through stir casting method. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination along with EDAX and mapping has been done on the composite materials to authenticate the consistent dispersal of reinforcements along with the matrix. The MMCs materials are extremely challengeable to machine in the conventional machining process due to the presence of reinforcement particles which lead the formation of more tool wear. Moreover, the quality of surface is also more important for the proposed applications. Hence, advanced machining is suggested one and in this research work, an unconventional machining processes namely electrical discharge machining (EDM) and wire electrical discharge machining (W-EDM) process have been utilized to examine the machining performance of the prepared composite materials newline