The influence of the microstructure of three Al-Si alloys on the cutting-force amplitude during fine turning

When cutting metallic materials, the magnitude and the variation of the amplitude of the cutting force and the quality of the treated surface are of major importance. During the fine turning of alloys that have similar mechanical properties, differences will show both in the roughness of the machined surface and in the magnitude of the cutting forces measured, which can be attributed to the influence of the microstructure of the workpiece material. This paper deals with the influence of the microstructure of Al alloys containing different amounts of silicon on the variation of the amplitude of the signal of the dynamic component of the main cutting force during fine turning. An analysis of the energy spectra and the auto-correlation functions of the amplitude of the dynamic component of the cutting force confirmed the relationship between the latter and the size of the phases in the microstructure of the workpiece material. It was confirmed that the microstructural changes were directly related to the amplitude of the cutting-force variation in the cutting zone. The microstructural changes and the cutting force can be considered as random phenomena; therefore, they may be described by statistical parameters such as the mean value, the standard deviation, and the coefficient of variation. The values calculated for the individual alloys differed considerably and confirmed a close relationship between the statistical values of the intercept lengths of the phases in the microstructure and the dynamic component of the cutting force. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.