Influence of end milling process parameters on micro-hardness of LM25 aluminium alloy

Abstract

The surface integrity of the machined component plays a vital role on the mechanical property of aluminium alloys. This research focused on developing an analytical model in order to predict the changes in micro-hardness and microstructure of LM25 aluminium alloy Design of experiment (DOE) was adopted for determining the effect of end milling process parameters such as cutting speed (Cs), feed rate (f ) and axial depth of cut (ap) on arithmetic average micro-hardness (MH). The micro-hardness of the samples is tested with vicker’s hardness tester. Desirability approach gives better accuracy of the result and the capability of predicting cutting process parameters. The optimum machining setting for single-objective optimization corresponds to Cs (81, 86 m/min), f(0,058 mm/rev), ap(2,78 mm) gives higher value of MH (134,2 HV).

Keywords

• Aluminium alloy
• casting
• micro-hardness
• scanning electron microscope (SEM)