Experimental Investigation of Ultrasonic Vibration Assisted Drilling of High Volume Fraction SiC_p/Al

Silicon carbide particle-reinforced aluminum matrix composite )SiCp/Al( has got increasingly used in industry area. Because of its excellent properties such as low coefficient of thermal expansion, high wear resistance, high specific strength and so on, high volume fraction SiCp/Al is considered as advanced materials for manufacturing inertial equipment, electronic packaging components and thermal control components. However, such properties also bring difficulties during its machining, especially edge breakage and materials accumulation appeared at hole entrance in conventional drilling (CD) process. Ultrasonic vibration assisted drilling )UVAD( method is used in this research to investigate the drilling effects comparing with conventional drilling. The cutting force, hole entrance morphology and hole wall surface roughness are measured for both process. The results showed that the cutting force can decreased by about 5% 25% during UVAD. The burrs and edge chipping of hole entrance are reduced with ultrasonic vibration assisted. The surface roughness Sa of the hole wall under UVAD process is improve by 7% 17% comparing to CD process. This research work can provide some guidance for the processing of high volume fraction of mental matrix composite materials.