In today’s industry, the need for lightweight alloys with high strength properties is growing. More specifically, magnesium alloys are in high demand. Unfortunately, magnesium’s limited formability hinders its broad range applicability. Previous research has discovered that the tensile formability of this alloy can be increased using electrical pulsing during the deformation process, referred to as Electrically-Assisted Manufacturing (EAM). Although this method increases a material’s formability (i.e. lowers flow stress, increases elongation, and reduces springback), a detailed analysis is required to further evaluate the effects of electricity on the material’s microstructure. The research herein will examine the microstructure of Magnesium AZ31B-O specimens that were deformed under uniaxial tension while electrically pulsed with various pulsing parameters (i.e. different current density/pulse duration combinations). This microstructural analysis will focus on how EAM affected grain size, grain orientation, and twinning. The microstructure of the following different specimen types will be compared: deformed EAM specimens, deformed non-pulsed baseline specimens, and undeformed non-pulsed “as received” specimens.

Machining is a popular and versatile manufacturing process that is widely used in today’s industry when producing metallic parts; however, limited tool life can make this an expensive and time consuming fabrication technique. Consequently, methods that decrease the rate of tool wear and, thus, increase tool longevity are a vital component when improving the efficiency of machining processes. To this end, cryogenically treating cutting tools (especially high-speed steel tooling) is becoming more commonplace since research has shown that the treated tooling exhibits significantly higher wear resistance. At this point, however, the effect of cryogenic treatments on ceramic tooling has not been established. Considering this, the research herein presents a feasibility study on the effectiveness of using cryogenic treatments to enhance the wear resistance of WG-300 whisker-reinforced ceramic cutting inserts. To begin, the effect of the cryogenic treatment on the insert’s hardness is examined. Subsequently, tool wear tests are conducted at various cutting speeds. Through this study, it is shown that cryogenically treating the ceramic inserts decreases the rate of tool wear at each of the cutting speeds that were tested. However, the degree of wear resistance introduced by cryogenically treating the inserts proved to be highly dependent on the cutting speed, with slower speeds exhibiting greater improvements. Thus, based on this initial study, the cryogenic treatment of ceramic tooling appears to produce beneficial results, potentially increasing the overall efficiency of machining processes.