Evaluation of drilling Al/B4C composites with carbide drills

Abstract

In this study, cutting forces and torque was evaluated through Taguchi Method (TM) in the drilling of the high density B4C particle reinforced composites, which were produced through powder metallurgy-hot pressing method, with coated and uncoated carbide drills. Cutting speed (18, 25 and 35 m/min), feed rate (0.08, 0.112 and 0.16 mm/rev), coating properties (coated and uncoated) and the amounts of particle reinforcement (5%, 10% and 15% B4C) were used as the control factors. It was observed that the increased feed rate and particle reinforcement increased the axial force and torque, and decreased the cutting speed. The uncoated drills had a better performance than the coated drills. The amount of B4C reinforcement was observed to be the most effective parameter on the axial force and torque with the contribution ratios of 96.6% and 49.1%, respectively. Moreover, the correlation coefficients (R2) of the first order predictive equations developed for the axial force and torque were calculated as 0.895 and 0.854, respectively.