Study on mill-grinding force of SiCp/Al composites by orthogonal experiment design

To solve the problems in machining of SiCp/Al composites, experiments were carried out using electroplated diamond tool with spiral grooves for mill-grinding of SiCp/Al composites. Through the orthogonal experiments, the effects of different mill-grinding tools and processing parameters on the milling force were investigated, and the mill-grinding force was analyzed through the main effect and the variance analysis. Results showed that when mill-grinding SiCp/Al composite material, the optimal parameters combination was T₂, v₄, f₁ and a₁, which was to say, at the processing helix angle 50°, the mill-grinding tool with three spiral grooves could get the smallest mill-grinding force in the case of processing parameters v =314 m/min, f= 100 mm/min, a =0.01 mm. Both the normal mill-grinding force F_n and tangential mill-grinding force F_t decreased with the increase of mill-grinding speed, while increased with the increase of feed rate and mill-grinding depth. The feed rate and mill-grinding depth were found to be the highly significant factors of the normal milling force. Milling speed, feed rate and mill-grinding depth were all found to be the most effective factors of the tangential milling force. The significance of various factors on the milling force was in an order of a > f > v > Tool.