1. Drilling and tapping characteristics of Al-Cu and Al-Si cast alloys
- Author
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Barakat, Hussein Mohamed Aly Abdelsalam and Barakat, Hussein Mohamed Aly Abdelsalam
- Abstract
The present study was performed on an Al-6% Cu-0.7%Si alloy, and 319 and 356 alloys following different heat treatments. The main task was to evaluate the drilling and tapping characteristics of the Al-Cu alloy with respect to the Al-Si based 319 and 356 alloys. The drilling work was carried out on a Huron K2X8five CNC machine at 15,000rpm with continuous cooling to absorb the heat and to clean the holes from the chips formed during the drilling operation. The results show that addition of Si coupled with T6 aging treatment produces the highest cutting forces (about 360N) among the alloys studied (approximately 270N) after 2500 holes. Considering the Al-Cu based alloys, varying the aging treatment has practically no significant bearing on the cutting forces. Apparently, a high Cu content acts as a self-lubricant, facilitating the drilling process up to 2700 holes, with no sign of tool wear. However, due to the low level of Si in the Al-Cu based alloy, built up edge (BUE) is more frequent, with conical chips, which would affect the precision of the size of the drilled hole. The chips are normally dull and characterized by their rough surfaces compared to those obtained from A356.0 alloy. Tapping of the drilled holes was carried out using Guhring 971 H6 M6 6HX- Carbide taps. The HT200 Al-Cu based alloys revealed excellent machinability with no sign of tool wearing after 2500 holes. In contrast, the tool was failed after 1600 holes in case of 356 alloy and 2160 holes for 319 alloy. Thus, it is concluded that the presence of 3.5% Cu in the 319 alloy helped in reducing the severity of wearing due to eutectic Si particles. However, the tapping forces reached to 120N prior to failure compared to about 75 N in the case of T200 based alloys. La présente étude a été réalisée sur un alliage Al-6% Cu-0,7% Si, et sur des alliages 319 et 356 après différents traitements thermiques. La tâche principale consistait à évaluer les caractéristiques de forage et de taraudage de l'alliag
- Published
- 2019