A theoretical and experimental investigation of surface generation in diamond turning of an Al6061/SiCp metal matrix composite

In this paper, the surface generation in ultra-precision diamond turning of Al6061/15SiCp metal-matrix composites was investigated based on different analytical approaches which include parametric analysis, cutting mechanic analysis, finite element method (FEM) analysis and power spectrum analysis. Parametric analysis was performed to explore the in situ inter-relationships between the process parameters and the surface roughness. The surface properties of the diamond turned surface were extracted and analyzed by the power spectrum analysis of the surface roughness profiles. Different surface generation mechanisms were deduced based on the cutting mechanics and FEM analysis. The results of the theoretical analyses were verified through a series of cutting tests conducted under various cutting conditions and a good correlation between the theoretical and experimental results was obtained.