Chemical Interactions between tool and Aluminium alloys in metal cutting

Abstract: Aluminium applications in automotive will increase by 25 % over the next decade, mainly driven by the electrification and the reduction of fuel consumption. This diploma work aims to increase the understanding of the chemical interactions between aluminium alloys and typical tool systems in metal cutting. First the temperature at the tool-chip interface was estimated by FEM simulations, using the software AdvantEdge. Thereafter the chemical interaction of the tool-chip interface was calculated at the simulated temperature using the Thermo-Calc software. The thermodynamic data and descriptions of the multicomponent systems used where found in the literature, assessed by other authors, but critically reviewed for the use in this work. The results of the FEM simulations indicate that the temperature for machining aluminium with PCD and cemented carbide is between 60-80 % of the melting temperature of Al7wt %Si alloy. The calculations of the chemical interaction in turn results in that several hard precipitates can stick to or transform on the surface of the workpiece or tool-chip interface, for example SiC, Al4C3 and evidently diamond from the tool. This work concluded that more predictive modelling is needed to refine the results and the results from this work needs to be confirmed with experiments. The results show that the modelling can predict the reaction phases at the tool-chip interface, this can be used as input for the tool wear mechanisms during development of tooling solutions.