Experimental modeling of the milling process of aluminum alloys used in the aerospace industry

Abstract

This research presents an experimental study carried out for the modeling and optimization of some technological parameters for the machining of metallic materials. Certain controllable factors were analyzed such as cutting speed, depth of cut, and feed per tooth. A dedicated research methodology was used to obtain a model which subsequently led to a process optimization by performing a required number of experiments utilizing the Minitab software application. The methodology was followed, and the optimal value of the surface roughness was obtained by the milling process for an aluminum alloy type 7136-T76511. A SECO cutting tool was used, which is standard in aluminum machining by milling. Experiments led to defining a cutting regime that was optimal and which shows that the cutting speed has a significant influence on the quality of the machined surface and the depth of cut and feed per tooth has a relatively small impact on the chosen ranges of process parameters.

Keywords

• mathematical modeling
• experimental research
• process parameters
• machined surface quality
• quality assurance