Aluminium + Ticp Matrix Composite Parting-Off Wheel-Production

IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)
e-ISSN: 2278-1684,p-ISSN: 2320-334X, Volume 9, Issue 4 (Nov. - Dec. 2013), PP 01-08
www.iosrjournals.org
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Aluminium + Ticp Matrix Composite Parting-Off Wheel-
Production
S. JayaveluAssistant Professor, B. Lokeshwaran Student
Department of Mechanical engineering, Veltech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and
Technology, Avadi, Chennai, India-600062
Table of Contents
Abstract: ................................................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction:.......................................................................................................................................................1
2. Experimental Work: ...........................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Fabrication of specimen:...................................................................................................................................2
2.2 Metal cutting using a composite wheel:.............................................................................................................3
3. Result & discussion:...........................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Density:............................................................................................................................................................4
3.2 Compressive strength:.......................................................................................................................................4
3.3 Hardness test: ...................................................................................................................................................4
3.4 Tensile strength: ...............................................................................................................................................4
3.5 Stress-strain relationship:..................................................................................................................................5
3.6 Cutting ratio: ....................................................................................................................................................5
3.7 Cutting Zone Temperature(CZT): .....................................................................................................................7
4.Conclusion:.........................................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................................................8
Abstract: The abrasive particulates on the cutting wheel influence the quality of cut. The surface finish, and
the temperature raise during the cutting processes is governed by various parameters such as size of the
particulates, its shape, roundness of edges at the particulates and strength of the bond between particulates and
resins. The composite parting-off wheel is superior to that of commercial counterparts. A composite parting-off
wheel was fabricated using powder metallurgy technique. The composite powders were prepared using an
ingeniously designed and developed horizontal axis ball mill. The parting-wheel was able to cut metals bars
such as aluminium, copper and mild steel with relative ease. It was found out that the mechanical properties
such as compressive strength, hardness and tensile strength was better than conventional abrasive wheels. The
cutting ratio was superior to the abrasive wheels and CZT was lower in comparison.
Keyword: Composite parting-off wheel, powder etallurgy, cutting speed
I. Introduction:
Metal cutting operation is basic in any industrial activity. Before the introduction of cutting wheel,
people relied on inferior techniques such as gas cutting, hack saw, band saw, shearing, etc. The metal cut by
these methods suffered degradation of its physical and mechanical properties alike. The high temperature during
gas welding operation altered the grain size and grain distribution, which subsequently affected the hardness
and other mechanical properties of the base metal. This takes place because the metal near the cutting zone
melt and recast. The band saw machines and power hack saw machines were able to eject cooling oil to reduce
the frictional heating near the cutting zone. Though this is superior in comparison with any metal cutting
operation, there is a major drawback that the machine is often bulky and heavy. So it cannot be transported from
place to place for on-spot metal cutting operation. However portable machines which use abrasive parting-off
wheel does not have this problem.
A portable machine with cutting wheel capable of cutting hard metals on spot is preferred by many
including workers and industrialists alike. The parting-off wheel is capable of cutting ferrous as well as non-
ferrous metals. It is now-a-days available as either metal discs having higher hardness and toughness than the
base metal or by using abrasive materials. Abrasive parting-off wheel is preferred over its metal counter part
because of its low cost as well as wide availability. The parting operation is carried out by rotating a parting
wheel at high speed while the work piece is rigidly held by vice in the machine. However, the major problem in
abrasive parting-off wheel is its tendency to fail prematurely and causing injury to workers nearby. Failure
occurs because of degradation of mechanical properties and catastrophic brittle fracture from routine sectioning
of work piece.

Aluminium + Ticp Matrix Composite Parting-Off Wheel-Production
Heat is generated due to friction between the rotating parting-off wheel and the work piece. A rational approach
in the selection of abrasive was developed, to determine minimum cost per cut. Since wheel wear has an
important bearing on cost, it is of major concern of surface finish and dimensional accuracy, which are
frequently of major importance in some other operations. Conventional abrasive wheels available in market
have low wear ratio, low flexural strength and may break or fail well before expected time. Due to high CZT
during the abrasive parting-off wheel operation may lead to thermal damage to the work surface, like
introduction of tensile residual stresses and development of micro cracks. When the cutting temperature within
the contact arc reaches 150⁰C or more, burnout occurs due to film boiling of cutting fluid and the temperature
suddenly increases to over 400⁰C. This means, frictional heat evaporates the coolant, and then it becomes dry
cutting as evident from the sudden increase in temperature.
Parting-off wheel made of composite materials such as silicon carbide particulate and glass fibre
reinforcements are able to cut granite stones easily.
II. Experimental Work:
A composite parting-off wheel is created for use in metal cutting operation. The composite wheel
avoids the disadvantages such as brittleness, loss of abrasive particles and lower lifetime of the cutting wheel.
2.1 Fabrication of specimen:
The fabrication of the cutting wheel was preceded by designing and fabrication of horizontal axis ball
mill. The composite parting-off wheel was fabricated using powder metallurgy technique. The steps for
manufacturing of the composite material cutting wheel are explained below.
Element A: A powder mixture of 35% Aluminium powder (50µ m), 63% Silicon carbide powder - SiCp
(120µm), 2% silica gel in crystal form. To create Aluminium powders and SiCp powders, a cluster of balls
ofsize 8mm, 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, 20 mm and 25 mm were filled into the horizontal axis ball mill Fig. 1.
It was then made to operate at constant speed 300 rpm for 8 hours.
Element B: A mixture of 70% resin, 25% hardener and 5% filler material were prepared by stirring this
composition. It is called epoxy resin.
Element C: Fibre glass whiskers with 1% of Magnesium for wet-ability.
Fig. 1. Ingeniously designed and developed ball mill
Element D: This is a mixture of Part A 70% and Part B 30%. The mixture was stirred well to get slurry of
composite material and epoxy resin.
Fig. 2. Die for manufacturing of composite material parting wheel

A mild steel die Fig. 2 was used to fabricate the specimen. The composition of the wheel was laid in
three layers and allowed to cure for a period of 4 to 5 hours. A detailed procedure of fabricating the specimen is
shown in the flowchart Fig. 3. The wheel thus fabricated is shown in Fig. 4. The composite wheel thus
fabricated has a radius of 300 mm and thickness of 5 mm respectively.
Fig. 3. Flowchart of parting-off wheel fabrication
Fig. 4. Composite parting wheel
2.2 Metal cutting using a composite wheel:
The specimen i.e., composite parting wheel thus fabricated was used to cut an aluminium bar. The
parting wheel was attached to a portable cutting machine Fig.5 capable of operating at 3800 rpm. The
specification of the machine is shown in Table 1.
The cutting wheel was found to be capable of cutting rods and bars of Aluminium, Copper and Ferrous easily.
The experiment was conducted with cutting of aluminium bars of 10 mm square cross section under two
conditions; one without coolant fluid and one with coolant fluid.
Max. blade diameter (mm) 355
Rated Voltage (V) 230
Rated frequency (Hz) 50/60
Rated speed (rpm) 3800
Table 1. Specification of portable parting-off wheel

Fig. 5. Portable cutting machine
III. Result & discussion:
3.1 Density:
The theoretical density was determined by comparing the sum of volume (weight divided by the
density) of constituents and the volume of composite.
The volume of aluminium used was 274225 mm3
and mass was 0.402 kg. Weight density was calculated a
1.441 X 10-5
N/mm2
The volume of Titanium carbide used was 493605 mm3 and mass was 0.725 kg. Then weight density was
calculated as 1.439 X 10-5
N/mm2
Total weight densisty of the wheel material was 4.321 X 10-5
N/mm2
The above value is just for the compostion of composite material of the parting-off wheel. The presence of
epoxy resin and fibre glass increases the density of the parting-off wheel further
3.2 Compressive strength:
The compression test was performed on wheel material specimen with length to diameter ratio of 1.5.
This test was performed on Universal Testing Machine of 100 KN capacity. The sample was compressed
between two flat platens and the maximum failure load was recorded as 265 MPa. The compression test is
illustrated in Fig. 6. This reveals that the parting-off wheel is having considerable compression strength to resist
compressive load while cutting at very high speed.
Fig.6. Test specimen as per ASTM standards
3.3 Hardness test:
Three samples were extracted from the composite parting-off wheel and hardness was measured using
Brinell hardness testing machine. The average of the three readings revealed hardness as 90 BHN. This is
relatively good hardness to withstand extensive load while cutting ferrous metals and those with abrasive
materials.
3.4 Tensile strength:
The direct tensile strength of the wheel material was measured. For this purpose wheel material
samples were fabricated as per the ASTM standard as shown in Fig. 7. The tensile strength was measured on
100 KN universal testing machine. The tensile strength is considered less due to the presence of Titanium
carbide particulates and fibre glass reinforcement. This makes the composite parting-off wheel slightly brittle.
However, it is more tensile than that of abrasive wheels.

Fig.7. Tensile test specimen as per ASTM standards
The results of all the above three tests are shown in Table 2
Density(N/mm2
) 4.321X10-5
Compressive strength (MPa) 265
Tensile strength (MPa) 100
Hardness (BHN) 90
Table 2. Properties of the composite parting-off wheel
3.5 Stress-strain relationship:
The abrasive wheels are subjected to a radial outward centrifugal force; therefore the material of the
wheel must have sufficient tensile strength to avoid catastrophic failure of the wheel during the rotation. The
material of the parting-off wheel should have high stiffness, i.e., for a given deflection, the load should be high
and vice- versa and also it should have flexibility.
The tensile strengths were measured by the help of Material Testing Machine, Zwick 010 model. Fig. 8
shows the tensile strength of the material of the wheel. The flexural strength of the wheel material was
measured by using three point loading system. The stiffness, i.e., load per unit deflection obtained for the
material of the wheel is 39.28 N/mm.
The graph reveals that the variation in stress and strain is linear. This means that the composite parting-
off wheel is still in its elastic limit even up to a stress of 65 MPa.
Fig. 8. Stress – Strain relationship in composite parting-off wheel
3.6 Cutting ratio:
Three materials aluminium, copper and mild steel bars were cut with the composite parting-off wheel
and abrasive wheel respectively. Correspondingly the cutting ratio was determined at four intervals of the work
piece. The intervals or position corresponding to the different depths of the aluminium bar while cutting with
the wheel is shown in Fig. 9. In the figure, the depth of the aluminium bar is 10 mm, readings are taken at four
locations (1,2,3,4) along depths 2.5 mm, 5 mm, 7.5 mm and 10 mm respectively.
Fig. 9. Cutting Aluminium bar using composite parting-off wheel

The cutting ratio was found by measuring the volume of the work piece and wheel after cutting operation. The
result obtained is discussed below. The comparison between cutting ratio by the composite parting-off wheel
and conventional abrasive wheel while cutting aluminium is shown in Fig. 10 a. & b. respectively.
Fig. 10. Cutting ratio comparison in cutting aluminium bar (a) Composite parting-off wheel and (b)
Conventional abrasive wheel
The graphs reveal that cutting ratio increased proportional with the depth of cut. This is because with increase in
depth the compressive strength of the parting-off wheel provided additional force to aid in the cutting operation.
The use of coolant fluid also increased the cutting ratio, since lower temperature during cutting provided better
compressive force. It is found that cutting ratio by composite parting-off wheel was better than the abrasive
wheels. This is because; the TiCp was harder than abrasive particulates.
The cutting ratio while cutting copper bar is compared in the graph 11 a. & b. respectively. The influence of
coolant is also clearly visible in the same.
Fig. 11. Cutting ratio comparison in cutting copper bar (a) Composite parting-off wheel and (b) Conventional
abrasive wheel
This graph reveals that the cutting ratio slightly less comparing with that on Fig. 10. Because copper is harder
and stronger than aluminium. However TiCp influences the cutting. The same is evident from abrasive wheel.
The use of coolant increased the cutting ratio because of lower temperature.
The cutting ratio of the composite parting-off wheel and the abrasive wheel are shown in Fig. 12 a. & b. The
influence of coolant fluid is clearly evident from the graph.
Fig. 12. Cutting ratio comparison in cutting mild steel bar (a) Composite parting-off wheel and (b)
Conventional abrasive wheel

3.7 Cutting Zone Temperature(CZT):
The CZT for the wheels during cutting of aluminium, copper and mild steel work pieces have been
illustrated in Fig. 13 a. 14 a. & 15 a. From the graphs it is evident that the using coolant reduced the CZT. It is
also found out that the CZT decreased with depth, because aluminium in the composite wheel had better
thermal conductivity which aided in better heat transfer during the cutting operation. In comparison while
cutting the three bars, the CZT was lower in case of aluminium bar because of higher thermal conductivity, and
then by copper bar because of its slightly lower thermal conductivity than aluminium, followed by mild steel
bar having the least thermal conductivity of the three.
The CZT of the abrasive wheels while cutting the three bars are shown in Fig. 13 b. 14 b. & 15 b.
Fig. 13. CZT in cutting aluminium bar (a) Composite parting-off wheel and (b) Conventional abrasive wheel
Fig. 14. CZT in cutting copper bar (a) Composite parting-off wheel and (b) Conventional abrasive wheel
Fig. 15. CZT in cutting mild steel bar (a) Composite parting-off wheel and (b) Conventional abrasive wheel
IV. Conclusion:
A triple layer composite parting-off wheel was fabricated. It was found to be superior to conventional
abrasive wheels. The cutting ratio of the composite parting-off wheel was analysed under different operating
conditions and CZT was found during cutting. The composite parting-off wheel was found to cut different
metals with relative ease.
The following properties of the composite parting-off wheel were identified:
 Density was greater than abrasive wheels because of the composition in the composite parting-off wheel
The compressive strength was considerably greater because of the bonding between various compositions
of the wheel

 Tensile strength was lower because of compaction between the particulates in the wheel
 Stress strain curve revealed that the variation between stress and strain in the composite parting-off wheel
was linear.
 The cutting ratio was better when coolant was used.
 The CZT was lower when compared with conventional abrasive wheels because the presence of aluminium
in its composition, heat dissipation was better.
Bibliography
[1]. M. Jayaraman, et.al., 2010, Establishing relationship between the base metal properties and friction stir welding process parameters of
cast aluminium alloys, Materials and Design, 31, 4567–4576
[2]. Rajagopalan, R., 1970, Abrasive Cutting off Wheel, Proc. of IVth AIMTDR Conference, IIT Madras, pp. 156-160
[3]. Sahu, P. and Sagar, R., 1999, Development of Abrasive Cut-off Wheel having side Grooves, The International Journal of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, in press pp. 23-27
[4]. Riga, A. T. and Scott, C. G., 2001, Failure Analysis of Abrasive Cut-off Wheel, Engineering Failure Analysis, Vol. 8, pp. 237-243
[5]. Shaw, M. C., 1980,‘The Rating of Abrasive cut off wheels, Transactions of ASME, Vol. 96, pp. 138-146
[6]. Paul, S. and Chattopadhyay, A.B., 1995, A study of effect of cryocooling in grinding, Int J Mach Tool Manu, Vol. 35,109-117
[7]. Ebbrell, S. et al., 2000, the effects of cutting fluid application methods on the grinding process, Int J Mach Tool Manu, Vol. 40, 209-
223
[8]. Rajesh Purohit, 2006, To study the effect of grain size and die design on the cutting performance of glass fibre reinforced SiC abrasive
cut-off wheels, the 7th Asia pacific industrial engineering and management systems conference, pp. 1825-1834

Aluminium + Ticp Matrix Composite Parting-Off Wheel-Production

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