Studies on Mechanical and Machinability Properties of B4Cp Reinforced 6061Aluminum MMC Produced via Melt Stirring
Aluminum boron carbide metal matrix composites (Al-MMC) have got wide applications in aeronautical and automobile industries due to their excellent mechanical and physical properties. Due to the presence of harder reinforcement particles, machining of these composites is a difficult task. The results of experimental investigation on mechanical and machinability properties of Boron carbide particle (B4Cp) reinforced aluminum metal matrix composites are presented in this paper.The influence of reinforced ratio of 7 wt% of B4Cpon mechanical properties was examined. It was observed that addition of B4Cpreinforcement resulted in improvement in hardness and tensile strengths to the extent of 71% and 38.4% respectively. Fabricated samples were turned on medium duty lathe of 3 kW spidle power with Poly crystalline diamond tool (PCD) of 10 μm particle size at various cutting conditions. The effect of machining parameters, e.g. cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut on cutting forces and formation of BUE was studied.