Effect of Equal Channel Angular Pressing on the Surface Roughness of Solid State Recycled Aluminum Alloy 6061 Chips

Abstract

Solid state recycling through hot extrusion is a promising technique to recycle machining chips without remelting. Furthermore, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) technique coupled with the extruded recycled billet is introduced to enhance the mechanical properties of recycled samples. In this paper, the surface roughness of solid state recycled aluminum alloy 6061 turning chips was investigated. Aluminum chips were cold compacted and hot extruded under an extrusion ratio (ER) of 5.2 at an extrusion temperature (ET) of 425°C. In order to improve the properties of the extruded samples, they were subjected to ECAP up to three passes at room temperature using an ECAP die with a channel die angle (Φ) of 90°. Surface roughness (Ra and Rz) of the processed recycled billets machined by turning was investigated. Box-Behnken experimental design was used to investigate the effect of three machining parameters (cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut) on the surface roughness of the machined specimens for four materials conditions, namely, extruded billet and postextrusion ECAP processed billets to one, two, and three passes. Quadratic models were developed to relate the machining parameters to surface roughness, and a multiobjective optimization scheme was conducted to maximize material removal rate while maintaining the roughness below a preset practical value.