MACHINABILITY OF ALUMINUM ALLOYS

I worked on this project along with a batch of Final year Engineering Undergraduate 
students, when I was working as a Lecturer at the Bangalore University, India. The 
project was funded by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), a Central 
government sector and also the largest space research program in India.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

	Machining has become indispensable to the modern man. The economic importance of 
the cutting process may be appreciated by the single observation that nearly every 
device in use in our complex society has one or more machined surfaces or holes.
	When such is the scenario, one can easily imagine its importance in the 
manufacture of Aircraft parts and Satellite components. Thus, the decision of the ISRO 
to focus on the studies of Machinability of Aluminum alloys which are extensively used 
in Aircraft components, is rightly justified.

	A Relational Database Management System such as Oracle was absolutely necessary 
for putting an activity such as metal cutting or the study of machinable properties, on 
a rational basis.

	Thus, the project that the ISRO proposed and abundantly funded the Bangalore 
University for the research, was unique and challenging by its own nature in that it 
required Engineers who were knowledgeable in both Mechanical Engineering and Database 
Management Systems.
	The objective of the project was to:
To maintain a database or  to catalogue a large volume of empirical information that was 
available.
Be able to predict what will happen under an, as yet, untested set of circumstances.
To produce new techniques and devices that would not ordinarily be inspired by a purely 
empirical approach.

In this investigation, specimens of pure Aluminum, LM-4, LM-6 and Aluminum-Zircon 
composite were subjected to machinability tests to determine the Unit power and 
Machinability Index. The reason for choosing these alloys and the composite was that 
they are used extensively by ISRO in the manufacture of light weight aircraft and 
satellite components. A machinability index of 100 was assigned to pure Al. The 
machinability index of LM-4, LM-6 and Al-Zi composite at various speeds, feeds and 
depths of cut were calculated as a ratio of unit power of pure Al. to the unit power of 
the respective alloys. 
	
	The results of the investigation were later pooled in a database using Oracle 7.1 
and Developer / 2000 to determine at what combination of speed, feed and depth of cut 
were each of the alloys and composite easily machinable.


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