Investigations on tool wear, surface roughness, cutting temperature, and chip formation in machining of Cu-B-CrC composites

Composites have excellent material properties such as lightness, rigidity, and strength with reinforcement of specialized materials to serve an extended field in engineering. Meanwhile, some restrictions due to the production process lead to poor machinability characteristics and show reduced surface quality, excessive cutting temperature, and tool wear. The principal aim in this study is to research the machinability characteristics of Cu matrix reinforced by B and ceramic CrC powders during dry turning operation. In addition to reinforcement ratio, cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut were taken into consideration according to Taguchi L8 orthogonal array in the experimental plan. Seemingly, reinforcement ratio is the governing factor over turning parameters on flank wear, surface roughness, and cutting temperatures. For the secondary effect, cutting speed and feed rate have contributing impact on cutting temperatures and surface roughness, respectively. Lastly, reinforcement ratio has significant impact on chip formation since deformation mechanism in the material is changed with cutting initiation. Accordingly, new additives reveal unique structure which is intriguing and need to be discovered for measuring the machinability behavior of metal matrix composites.