Experimental investigation of cryogenic cooling by liquid nitrogen in the orthogonal machining of aluminium 6061-T6 alloy

Chip breakability is the major criteria in the advanced automated industries. Machining of ductile materials in the automated machines is more complicated one because of the continuous chips. The main objectives of the present work is to experimentally investigate the role of cryogenic cooling by liquid nitrogen jet on cutting temperature, cutting force, chip thickness and chip breaking in the orthogonal machining of aluminium 6061-T6 alloy at different speed-feed combinations by uncoated carbide insert. The results have been compared with dry machining. By cryogenic cooling method, it has been observed that temperature was reduced to 27-40%, the cutting force was increased to a maximum of 13% and the maximum deviation for chip thickness was found to be 25% over dry machining. Application of cryogenic cooling was considered to be more effective in the chip breaking over dry cutting. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.