A Preliminary Comparative Experimental Study on Machining of An Al/SiC Composite Material and a Mild Steel

Abstract

The power consumption and the specific cutting energy are compared over a range of machine settings as well as material removal rates (MRR) during end-milling of Al/SiC and AISI 1018 workpieces. The results show not only significantly higher values but also their significant fluctuation in case of Al/SiC as compared to AISI 1018. Besides, for each of the workpiece materials, the power consumption exhibits a maximum value at a "critical" cutting speed, and then declines. For the other two machine settings, namely, depth of cut and feed rate, cutting power increases linearly with them.