Investigation on the Effect of Graphite Reinforcement on Drilling of AL/SiCp Metal Matrix Composite-A Statistical Approach

An attempt has been made in the present investigation to study the effect of graphite incorporation in Al2219/15SiC_p composite. This study evaluates the influence of independent parameters such as cutting speed and feed rate on Thrust force and surface roughness. Taguchi design of experiments is used to collect the data in a controlled way and a linear regression model was developed. This paper aims to model thrust force and surface roughness with drilling parameters using a statistical approach. The results obtained in this work enable influence and significance of various parameters on drilling characteristics of Al2219/15SiC_p-graphite to be better understood. It was found that SiC_p-Gr reinforced composites exhibit less thrust force but detrimental effect on surface roughness compared to SiC_p composite. Feed rate is the most significant factor affecting the drilling parameters followed by cutting speed.