Experimental Study on Rotary Ultrasonic Machining of SiCp/Al Composite

The performances of particle reinforced aluminum matrix composite is excellent, but it is hard to be manufactured, which resist its wide spread engineering application. Rotary ultrasonic machining (RUM) is very suit for machining of particle reinforced aluminum matrix composite with moderate or high volume fraction. An aluminum matrix composite reinforced with 45% volume fraction of 3 mu m silicon carbide particles in a A12 aluminium matrix is experimental studied by RUM, and surface topography, surface roughness and cutting force are analyzed. The experimental results show that machining surface quality is high, surface roughness Ra ranges from 0.131 similar to 0.340 mu m, the cutting process is very smooth and cutting force Fz ranges from 23.33 similar to 51.31N, grinding wheel jams and grinding burn do not appear on rotary ultrasonic cutting tool after machining, and tool wear is extremely little.