Dry milling of magnesium based hybrid materials

In the transportation industry, a general desire is to reduce the energy consumption. One way to achieve this is the use of light weight metals like magnesium and its' alloys. An alternative solution is the use of magnesium based hybrid structures which are combinations of magnesium and another material like aluminium or steel in one machine part. Hybrid materials can offer optimal technical performance due to the favourable strength-weight ratio. On the other hand during cutting increased difficulties arise due to the different nature of the coupled materials. Hybrid material couples due to their constructions have to be machined in one operation. Particularly the magnesium-sintered steel combination requires special approach because of the completely different machinability of the constituents. Authors aimed to optimize face milling process of hybrids in dry conditions. Experiments focused on the tool material and cutting edge geometry. The milling tests on the hybrid material couple specimens were carried out basically by single cutting edge, and the cutting forces, torque, surface roughness, the chip temperature was measured in the cutting process. Because of the flammability of magnesium chips, shape and type of chips were also examined.