Investigation of the Water Guided Laser Micro-Jet Machining of Aero Engine Components

The water guided laser micro-jet (LMJ) is a new potential method to machine aero engine parts with much less heat affected area and faster cutting speed than dry laser machining. The focus of this paper is to investigate the energy density and material removal for a dual-laser LMJ system. Then, the effects of dominated parameters on the energy density of LMJ are analyzed. Finally, a mathematical model is developed to describe the relationship between dominant laser parameters with the energy density of LMJ and material removal rate followed by machining case studies of aero engine components.

A New Method for the Prediction of Micro-Milling Tool Breakage

Micro-milling tool breakage has become a bottleneck for the development of micro-milling technology. A new method to predict micro-milling tool breakage based on theoretical model is presented in this paper. Based on the previously built micro-milling force model, the bending stress of the micro-milling cutter caused by the distributed load along the spiral cutting edge is calculated; Then, the ultimate stress of carbide micro-milling tool is obtained by experiments; Finally, the bending stress at the dangerous part of the micro-milling tool is compared with the ultimate stress. Tool breakage curves are drawn with feed per tooth and axial cutting depth as horizontal and vertical axes respectively. The area above the curve is the tool breakage zone, and the area below the curve is the safety zone. The research provides a new method for the prediction of micro-milling tool breakage, and therefore guides the cutting parameters selection in micro-milling.

Non-Contact Ultrasonic Abrasive Machining of Wire-Electrical Discharge Machined SUS304 Steel

Non-contact ultrasonic abrasive machining (NUAM) is a variant of ultrasonic machining (USM). In NUAM, material is removed predominantly by cavitation erosion in abrasive slurry. Due to a significantly lower material removal rate than traditional USM, NUAM is investigated for its applicability on surface modification and finishing in this study. Experiments were conducted on SUS304 steel samples machined by wire electrical discharged machining (WEDM). Due to the thermal spark phenomenon during WEDM, a thermal recast layer, of thickness approximately 15 μm, is often left over on the specimen’s surface after the process. The undesired thermal recast layer contributes to the poor surface integrity of specimens. A NUAM system was configured using a 40 kHz ultrasonic system. Ultrasonic vibration amplitude of 70 μm at the horn tip was used to generate cavitation bubbles in the abrasive slurry. NUAM was found to be effective in removing the unstable thermal recast layers by means of cavitation erosion. As a result, the average surface roughness, Ra, of the specimens improved from approximately 2.5 μm to ∼1.7 μm after 20 minutes of processing time. Furthermore, the addition of abrasive particles was observed to aid in more efficient removal of thermal recast layers than a pure cavitation condition.

Investigation of the Cleaning and Welding Steps From the Friction Element Welding Process

The requirement of increased fuel economy standards has forced automakers to incorporate multi-materials into their current steel dominant vehicles in order to lightweight their fleets. Technologies such as Self Piercing Rivets and Flow Drill Screws are currently implemented for joining aluminum to high-strength steels but only one-technology is viable for joining aluminum to ultra-high-strength steels without pre-holes, namely Friction Element Welding. This study is aimed at investigating how variations in the cleaning and welding steps of the Friction Element Welding process influence joint quality. A design of experiment was conducted to understand the influence of key process parameters (endload, spindle RPM, and relative distance) during these steps on the pre-defined joint quality metrics of head height, weld zone diameter, under-head fill area, temperature, and microhardness. It is found that cleaning step parameters have the greatest influence on process time and energy consumption, while welding step parameters greatly influence maximum torque on the element, head height, and underhead fill, with both cleaning force and weld force influencing weld diameter, all parameters influence temperature.

Development of Multi-Axis Laser-Assisted Milling Device

Laser-assisted machining (LAM) process is an effective method to facilitate material removal processes for difficult-to-cut materials. In LAM process, the mechanical strength of various materials is reduced by a laser heat source focused in front of the cutting tool during machining. Since the laser heat source is located ahead of the cutting tool, the workpiece is preheated by the heat source. This enables difficult-to-cut materials to be machined more easily with low cutting energy, increasing the machining productivity and accuracy. It is difficult to apply laser-assisted milling (LAMilling) to workpieces having complex shapes, because it is not easy to control laser preheating and the cutting tool path for three-dimensionally shaped workpieces. LAMilling has only been used in limited fields such as single-direction machining of flat surfaces. To apply this process in the industrial field, studies on workpieces having various shapes are needed. This study aims to develop a laser-assisted milling device having multiple axes and to investigate the machining characteristics of several difficult-to-cut materials.

Rotary Ultrasonic Machining: Effects of Tool End Angle on Delamination of CFRP Drilling

Aerospace, automotive and sporting goods manufacturing industries have more interest on carbon fiber reinforced plastics due to its superior properties, such as lower density than aluminum; higher strength than high-strength metals; higher stiffness than titanium etc. Rotary ultrasonic machining is a hybrid machining process that combines the material removal mechanisms of diamond abrasive grinding and ultrasonic machining. Hole-making is the most common machining operation done on carbon fiber reinforced plastics, where delamination is a major issue. Delamination reduces structural integrity and increases assembly tolerance, which leads to rejection of a part or a component. Comparatively, rotary ultrasonic machining has been successfully applied to hole-making in carbon fiber reinforced plastics. As reported in the literature, rotary ultrasonic machining is superior to twist drilling of carbon fiber reinforced plastics in six aspects: cutting force, torque, surface roughness, delamination, tool life, and material removal rate. This paper investigates the effects of tool end angle on delamination in rotary ultrasonic machining of carbon fiber reinforced plastics. Several investigators have cited thrust force as a major cause for delamination. Eventhogh, it is found on this investigation, tool end angle has more significant influence on the delamination in rotary ultrasonic machining of carbon fiber reinforced plastics comparing to cutting force and torque.

Study on Oil Adsorption and Polishing Characteristics by Novel Nanofiber Pad for Ultra-Precision Abrasive Machining

Nanofibers can be used in such fields/applications as medical care, environment protection, apparel, and agriculture. We also believe this field will continue to show fast growth in the next few years. In this paper, we focused an abrasive machining application for oil adsorbing and polishing performances that achieved polymeric nanofiber mass production by a melt blowing method. In the present report, we proposed an oil adsorption physical model and compared experiment results to develop a nanofiber polishing pad. We used this model and calculated the mass ratio of oil to abrasive grains and abrasive size in abrasive machining when the fiber mass and bulk density were constant. For realizing a free-form nano surface, such as a molding die surface, we conducted base experiments with different fiber diameters and grain sizes and compared the base polishing characteristics with commercial felt buff. The polished surface roughness of the workpiece became smaller, and the polishing processes on it were more stable with this new, low cost abrasive material on abrasive machining. We believe that the nanofiber abrasive pad can be used in abrasive machining with oil slurry as a next-generation abrasive material.

Discrete Element Simulation of the Stress Wave in High Speed Milling

As cutting tool penetrates into workpiece, stress waves is induced and propagates in the workpiece. This paper aims to propose a two-dimensional discrete element method to analyze the stress waves effects during high speed milling. The dependence of the stress waves propagation characteristics on rake angle and cutting speed was studied. The simulation results show that the energy distribution of stress waves is more concentrated near the tool tip as the rake angle or the cutting speed increases. In addition, the density of initial cracks in the workpiece near the cutting tool increases when the cutting speed is higher. The high speed milling experiments indicate that the chip size decreases as the cutting speed increases, which is just qualitatively consistent with the simulation.

Electrospun Sodium-Cobalt Oxide Ceramic Nanofiber and the Electromagnetic Responses

In this work, a sodium-cobalt oxide (NaxCo2O4) ceramic composite nanofiber was manufactured through electrospinning. The response of the fiber to external electromagnetic field was characterized to observe the heat generation in the fiber. In addition, we also measured the current passing through the fiber under the polarization of DC potential. It is found that the fiber has intensive heating behavior when it is exposed to the electromagnetic field. The temperature increases more than 5 degrees in Celsius scale only after 5 s exposure. The current – potential curve of the fiber reveals its dielectric behavior. It is concluded that this ceramic fiber has the potential to be used for hyperthermia treatment in biomedical engineering or for energy conversions.

Turning Force Prediction of AISI 4130 Considering Dynamic Recrystallization

Thermal mechanical loadings in machining process would promote material microstructure changes. The material microstructure evolution, such as grain size evolution and phase transformation could significantly influence the material flow stress behavior, which will directly affect the machining forces. An analytical model is proposed to predict cutting forces during the turning of AISI 4130 steel. The material dynamic recrystallization is considered through Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) model. The explicit calculation of average grain size is provided in an analytical model. The grain size effect on the material flow stress is considered by introducing the Hall-Petch relation into a modified Johnson-Cook model. The cutting forces prediction are based on Oxley’s contact mechanics with consideration of mechanical and thermal loads. The model is validated by comparing the predicted machining forces with experimental measurements.