Influence of tool rake angle on the quality of pure magnesium chip-consolidated product

Chips were produced by orthogonal cutting of cast pure magnesium billet with three different tool rake angles viz., −15°, −5° and +15° on a lathe. Chip consolidation by solid state recycling technique involved cold compaction followed by hot extrusion. The extruded products were characterized for microstructure and mechanical properties. Chip-consolidated products from −15° rake angle tool showed 19% increase in tensile strength, 60% reduction in grain size and 12% increase in hardness compared to +15° rake chip-consolidated product indicating better chip bonding and grain refinement. Microstructure of the fracture specimen supports the above findings. On the overall, the present work highlights the importance of tool rake angle in determining the quality of the chip-consolidated products.