Investigation on Surface Quality of Drilled Holes of A713alloy Based MMC with Addition of Bamboo Leaf Ash and Aluminum Oxide as Reinforcements: A Comprehensive Study

Abstract

This research work is carried out to investigate peck drilling characteristic of A713 metal matrix composites in terms of the surface quality i.e average surface roughness of the drilled holes keeping the feed rate constant at 50 mm/min and varying the depth of cut per step. Three materials viz: A713 alloy, A713 + 4 wt.% BLA, and A713 + 4 wt.% Al₂O₃ are considered. The composites were fabricated using compo casting technique and dry peck drilling was performed using HSS 6 mm diameter drill with varying depth of cut (1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm) and rotational speed (900 rpm, 1200 rpm and 1500 rpm). This research work is taken up in view of the current scenario of the low cost competition of the advanced materials. Addition of agro waste reinforcement in the metal matrix composites is an emerging research area for developing low cost advanced materials. And also, despite of having tailorable attractive properties in metal matrix composites, machining has been an issue due to high cost involved in machining such materials. This study is also an attempt to explore the behavior of the bamboo leaf ash reinforcement on surface quality during the peck drilling operation with the low cost HSS drill bit in dry condition.