Experimental Investigation and Analysis of Thrust Force in Drilling Hybrid Metal Matrix Composites by Coated Carbide Drills

Hybrid metal matrix composites (MMCs) find diversified applications in many engineering fields and are very important in the recent development of material science. The present article investigates the effect of thrust force in the drilling of hybrid MMCs using coated carbide drills. Materials used for the present investigation are Al 356-aluminum alloy reinforced with silicon carbide of size 25 microns and mica of an average size 45 microns, which are produced through stir casting route. Experiments are conducted on a vertical machining centre using the central composite design technique. A model is developed to correlate the drilling parameters with thrust force using response surface methodology (RSM). The results indicate that the developed model is suitable for prediction of thrust forces in drilling of hybrid MMCs. Analysis of the drilled surface of Al356/SiC-Mica composites was done using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The influence of different parameters on thrust force of Al356/SiC-Mica composites has been analyzed through contour graphs and three-dimensional (3D) plots.