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Machining of LM13 and LM28 cast aluminium alloys: Part I

D.K. Dwivedi a, , A. Sharma b , T.V. Rajan b
a
b

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee 247667, India
Department of Metallurgy, MNIT, Jaipur 302017, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:

a b s t r a c t
In present paper, the inuence of melt treatment (grain renement and modication) and

Received 22 April 2006

heat treatment (T6 ) of cast LM13 and LM28 aluminium alloys on machining behaviour has

Received in revised form 4 May 2007

been reported. Alloys under investigation were prepared by controlled melting and casting

Accepted 18 May 2007

followed by heat treatment (T6 ). As-cast, melt-treated and heat-treated alloys were investigated for machining characteristic at different cutting speeds. Melt treatment of both the
alloys (LM13 and LM28) reduced the cutting force and cutting temperature whereas heat

Keywords:

treatment increased both cutting force and cutting temperature. Cutting temperature was

Cast Al alloys

found higher in machining of LM28 alloy than the LM13 alloy. Maximum cutting tempera-

Machining behaviour

ture was found for both the alloys in heat-treated conditions. Heat treatment of LM28 alloy

Melt treatment

reduced the surface roughness whereas heat treatment of LM13 alloy increased it. Melt

Heat treatment

treatment and heat treatment of LM13 alloy increased the average number of chips per gm.

Microstructure

LM28 alloy produced higher number of chips per gm than the LM13 alloy.
2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Cutting force
Surface nish
Cutting tool temperature

1.

Introduction

Selection of any casting alloy is dependent on wide variety of

factors such as service requirement and economy of processing (weldability, castability and machinability). Machinability
of materials plays an important role in its selection of material for commercial exploitation. In general, more than 80% of
manufactured parts are machined before they are ready for
use (Pathak and Tiwari, 1995). Thus, machinability of a material determines its economy in various applications. One or
more of the following criterias may be used to assess machinability of a material. However, relative importance of these
parameters for evaluation of machinability varies according
to the requirement (Trent and Wright, 2000; Dwivedi, 2000a):
Tool life. The amount of material removed by a tool,
under standardized condition, before tool performance

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 1332 285826; fax: +91 1332 285665.
E-mail address: dkd04fme@iitr.ernet.in (D.K. Dwivedi).
0924-0136/$ see front matter 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.05.032

becomes unacceptable or tool is worn out by a standard

amount.
Limiting rate of metal removal. The maximum rate at which
material can be machined for a standard tool life.
Cutting force. The forces acting on tool during the machining
under specied condition.
Surface nish. The surface nish achieved under specied
cutting condition.
Chip. The chip shape and size produced under standardized
condition as this can affect chip disposability.

Pure aluminium adheres to the tool and forms built up edge

apart from producing long chips that are too ductile to break.
Addition of some alloying elements improves the machinability by reducing adherence to the tool and making the chips
more brittle. Constituents which are present in solid solution such as copper, silicon, magnesium and zinc increase

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the hardness of aluminium matrix thereby reducing the metal

pick up from tool, formation of burrs and tearing of metal surface (Van Horn, 1967; Tay and Lee, 1992). Constituents out of
solution, when combine with aluminium promote break up
of chips. If constituents such as CuAl2 , FeAl3 and Mg2 Si, are
not extremely hard, machinability is improved. If constituents
such as silicon or those formed by boron, chromium, manganese and titanium, are extremely hard, rapid wear of tool
take place. Machinability of hypereutectic AlSi alloys is poor
mainly because of coarse primary silicon crystals, which have
extremely high hardness and tends to wear out tool rapidly.
Addition of phosphorous renes the primary silicon particles
and improves the machinability. Modication of hypoeutectic
alloys with sodium improves machinability (Wang et al., 1995;
Mondolfo, 1979). Damodaran et al. (Damodaran, 1991) studied
the inuence of rare earth additions on machining behaviour
of LM28 alloy and found that the addition of elements like
cesium and lanthanum reduces the specic power consumption. Low silicon alloys with copper after heat treatment may
have equal or better machinability than those with high silicon
and copper (Hatch, 1998; Sadasivan and Sarthy, 2000). Some
improvement in machinability is obtained by the addition
of zinc, magnesium, titanium, bismuth and lead (Mondolfo,
1979).
During the manufacturing of engineering components
such as piston, cylinder head, which are rst processed by die
casting frequently need machining for obtaining the desired
dimensions and surface nish. Renement and modication
of micro-constituents of these alloys are common industrial
practices before casting. These treatments in turn change
their microstructure and so mechanical properties. Thus, it is
expected that thermal and melt treatment would also affect
machinability of these alloys. Literature survey did not reveal
any systematic study on the inuence of melt treatment
(grain renement and modication) and heat treatment (T6 )
on machining behaviour of these piston alloys (LM13 and
LM28). Therefore, in the present work, an attempt has been
made to study the effect of grain renement, modication
and heat treatment on microstructure, mechanical properties and machining behaviour. The specic objectives of the
present investigation are: (1) to study the inuence of melt
treatment and heat treatment of alloys under investigation on
machining characteristics such as cutting forces, cutting temperature, number of chip per gm and surface roughness and
(2) to study the inuence of metal cutting parameters such as
cutting speed and feed rates on machining characteristics of
LM13 and LM28 aluminium alloy.

2.

Experimental procedure

2.1.

Material

The two base alloys developed for the investigations are (i) a
near eutectic AlSi alloy (LM13) and (ii) a hypereutectic AlSi
alloy (LM28). Experimental alloys were prepared by careful
melting of master alloys such as Al28% Si, Al30% Cu, Al10%
Ni and Al10% Mg in appropriate quantities with aluminium
of 99.99% purity in an electric resistance furnace. Necessary
allowances for melting losses were also taken into account

Table 1 Nominal composition of AlSi alloys

Alloy

Element (wt.%)

Eutectic alloy (LM13)

Hypereutectic alloy (LM28)

Si

Ni

Cu

Mg

Al

12.0
17.0

1.0
1.0

0.80
0.80

0.60
0.60

Balance
Balance

in computation of charges. After proper mixing, the molten

alloys were cast in metallic mould (25 mm 37 mm 150 mm).
The nominal compositions of experimental alloys are as given
in Table 1.
Molten LM13 alloy was treated for grain renement of aluminium crystals and modication of eutectic silicon whereas
LM28 alloy was melt-treated for renement of primary silicon crystals only. Alloys in melt-treated conditions have been
referred as melt-treated alloys in the forgoing sections.
Grain renement of LM13 alloy was carried out by adding
0.2% of Al5% Ti1% B master alloy. Modication was done by
addition of Al10% Sr master alloy. The charge was melted in
a preheated graphite crucible using an electric resistance furnace. The melt was covered with ux to avoid the oxidation.
Degassing was carried out with help of hexachloroethane.
After uxing and degassing, calculated amount of Al5% Ti1%
B wrapped in aluminium foil was added to LM13 alloy with
constant stirring of the melt at 720 5 C. This was followed
(after 20 min of addition of grain rener) by addition of 0.06%
of strontium in form of Al10% Sr master alloy to the melt.
After holding for 10 min dross was removed and subsequently
molten alloy was poured in cylindrical metal moulds (diameter 25 mm and length 100 mm).
Primary silicon particles in LM28 alloy were rened using
0.05% red phosphorus. The molten metal was kept at 900 C.
Before adding phosphorus based rener, degassing was carried out with hexachloroethane. After this rener was plunged
deep into the melt till the reaction completed. The melt so prepared was poured at 900 C into metallic mould. A lter was
kept at the top of metallic mould to trap inclusions and dross
particles, if any, during pouring in both the cases.
Alloys under investigation were subjected to heat treatment cycle (T6 ); which consisted solutionizing, quenching and
articial age hardening. Melt-treated LM13 and LM28 alloy
were heat-treated to further enhance the mechanical properties. Both the alloys were solution treated at 510 5 C for
6 h followed by quenching in water at 30 C and articial aging
at 170 5 C for 12 h. These alloys have been referred as heattreated LM13 or LM28 alloy in the forgoing sections.

2.2.

Mechanical testing

Samples required for various tests were machined from ascast, melt-treated and heat-treated LM13 and LM28 alloy. Each
test was repeated three times. Average value of properties was
taken for study. Tensile properties (tensile strength and ductility in terms of percentage elongation) were measured using
Hounseeld computerized tensile testing machine (20 kN).
Tensile tests were carried out on round samples having a
5.05 mm gauge diameter and 25.2 mm gauge length. The samples were tested at constant strain rate of 1.0 mm/min. The
ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and ductility in terms of per-

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2.3.4.

Table 2 Cutting parameters used to study the

machining behaviour
Parameters
Feed rate (mm/rev)
Cutting speed (m/min)
Depth of cut (mm)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

0.046
11
2

0.046
16
2

0.046
24
2

0.046
30
2

0.046
50
2

centage elongation was calculated. Samples for hardness

measurement were polished with emery paper up to 2/0 grade.
The samples were degreased, washed and dried before the
test. Hardness at ve different locations over the entire crosssection was taken on Vickers hardness testing machine using
a load of 5 kgf.

2.3.

Machining behaviour

Machinability tests were conducted on all geared head stock

lathe without coolant. These tests were conducted under different cutting conditions (Table 2). During machining cutting
forces, number of chips per gm, cutting temperature and surface roughness were measured using the procedure given
below.

2.3.1.

Cutting force

Cutting forces (FX , FY and FZ ) generated on tool during the

machining were measured using lathe tool dynamometer
(IEICOS, Bangalore). The tangential force (FZ ) is by far greatest of the three components of forces as it does most of the
work and is therefore responsible for most of the power consumption. Unless otherwise specied, cutting force indicates
the tangential cutting force (FZ ). Cutting tool was mounted on
lathe tool dynamometer. High-speed steel tool (10, 12, 13, 15,
16, 17 and 0.6) was used for machining in all the experiments.
Cutting tool was overhanging from dynamometer and therefore it did not allow heavy cutting conditions, i.e. high cutting
speed and feed rate. Therefore, all machining tests were conducted in comparatively low cutting speed (1050 m/min) to
study the effect of melt treatment and heat treatment on
machining behaviour of alloys under investigation. Variation in cutting force with time during 2 min machining was
recorded at interval of 5 s for duration of 2 min. Mean and
standard deviation were calculated using 24 data points. A representative cutting force was obtained corresponding to each
condition, which was used for comparative study in the work.

2.3.2.

Chip form

Chips produced during machining were collected to study

their size. Chip size was studied using number of chips per
gm criteria.

2.3.3.

Cutting temperature

Variation of cutting tool temperature with time during

machining of experimental alloys was measured by embedding a thermocouple on rake face of the tool at 3 mm distance
away from cutting edge. Tool temperature was recorded during 2 min of machining. Steady-state cutting temperature was
used for comparative study.

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Surface roughness

Roughness of machined samples of various alloys under different conditions was evaluated using Ra surface roughness
parameter with the help of surface roughness tester (Mitutoyo
SJ-301, Japan) under the following conditions:
Standard:
ISO 1999
Prole:
R
Cut-off length:
0.8 mm
Number of samples:
5
Range:
Auto (020,000 vertical and
02000 horizontal)
Speed:
0.25 mm/s

2.4.

Microscopy

Samples for micro-structural studies were cut from ingot

castings (as-cast, melt-treated and heat-treated condition).
Specimens were polished by standard metallographic procedure using a series of emery papers from 1/0 to 4/0 grade
and nally polished on sylvet cloth using ne alumina. Polished samples were etched with Kellers reagent. A Reichert
Jung (MEF-3) optical microscope was used for examination of
microstructure of the samples. Some of the metallographic
samples were observed under scanning electron microscope
(Leo-435-VP-England). SEM studies were also carried out on
tensile fractured surfaces and machined surface.

3.

Results

3.1.

Microstructure

The optical micrographs of LM13 alloy in as-cast, melt-treated

and heat-treated condition are shown in Fig. 1(a)(c). It can
be seen that the primary aluminium dendrites (light etched)
are embedded in eutectic matrix of as-cast alloy (Fig. 1(b)). The
eutectic (dark etched) is largely present in the inter-dendritic
region of aluminium. It appears that copper is present as solid
solution in the matrix as its quantity is well within the solubility of copper in aluminium. The microstructure of as-cast alloy
reveals primary aluminium dendrites with an average dendrite arm spacing in range of 4060 m. Area fraction of -Al
is about 51.3% and that of eutectic is around 47.6% and porosity about 2%. Melt treatment renes the eutectic structure
and aluminium grains. Inter-dendritic arm spacing of aluminium in melt-treated condition is in the range of 2535 m
(Fig. 1(b)). Heat treatment signicantly changes the morphology of eutectic silicon. Heat treatment causes spheroidization
of eutectic silicon crystals (Fig. 1(c)). Spheroidization of silicon
predominantly takes place along the grain boundaries. Optical
microphotographs of LM28 alloy in as-cast, rened and heattreated condition are shown in Fig. 2(a)(c). It can be seen that
as-cast alloy contains coarse polyhedral shaped primary silicon crystals in matrix of eutectic (Fig. 2(a)). Melt treatment of
LM28 alloy using red phosphorous results in renement of primary silicon (Fig. 2(b)). Heat treatment of LM28 alloy changes
the morphology of primary and eutectic silicon crystals significantly (Fig. 2(c)). Spheroidization of eutectic silicon particles
takes place, while sharp edges of primary silicon particles are
rounded off. Round morphology of eutectic silicon crystals

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Fig. 1 Microphotograph of LM13 alloy in (a) as-cast and (b)

rened condition and (c) heat-treated condition (200).

reduces the stress concentration at particlematrix interface.

Heat treatment does not affect the size of primary silicon particles.

3.2.

Machining behaviour

Machinability studies were carried out to investigate the inuence of melt treatment and heat treatment of LM13 and LM28
alloy on machining behaviour. The machining behaviour of
experimental alloys was studied in respect of cutting force,
cutting temperature, number of chips per gm and surface
roughness under different machining conditions.
LM13 and LM28 alloys were subjected to machinability tests
over a range of cutting speeds (1050 m/min), while feed rate

Fig. 2 Microphotograph of Al17% Si1% Ni0.8% Cu0.6%

Mg alloy in (a) as-cast and (b) rened condition and (c)
heat-treated condition (200).

(0.046 mm/rev) and depth of cut (2.0 mm) were kept constant.
Fig. 3(a) and (b) shows the variations of cutting force with
increase in cutting speed during machining of LM13 and LM28
alloy. It can be observed that the cutting force is not affected
signicantly with increase in cutting speed during machining
of both the alloys irrespective of their conditions. LM13 and
LM28 alloy in heat-treated condition generate higher cutting
force on tool during machining than those in as-cast and melttreated condition. Both alloys in as-cast condition generated
higher cutting force than that in melt-treated condition. Both
the alloys in melt-treated condition needed minimum cutting
force for machining. A careful observation of Fig. 3 showed that
cutting force for LM28 alloy was higher than that for LM13 alloy
irrespective of alloy condition.

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Fig. 3 Cutting force vs. cutting speed relationship (at

0.046 mm/rev feed rate and 2.0 mm depth of cut) under
different conditions in machining of (a) LM13 and (b) LM28
alloy.

Fig. 4(a) and (b) shows the variations of number of chips per
gm with increase in cutting speed during machining of LM13
and LM28 alloy. It can be observed that machining of LM13
alloy produced less number of chips per gm with increase
in cutting speed. However, increase in cutting speed during
machining of LM28 alloy had insignicant effect on number of
chips per gm. Melt treatment and heat treatment of LM13 alloy
decreased the number of chips per gm. Melt treatment of LM28
alloy also decreased the number of chips per gm while the
heat treatment increases the number of chips per gm. Number of chips per gm produced in machining of LM13 alloy was
fewer than the LM28 alloy under identical conditions. Size of
chips is important from their disposability point of view especially in automatic machining. These results show that the
alloy composition, condition and cutting parameter inuence
the disposability of chips.
Fig. 5(a) and (b) show the variation of surface roughness
with increase in cutting speed during machining of LM13 and
LM28 alloy. It can be observed that surface roughness (Ra ) of
machined surface of both the alloys decreased with increase in
cutting speed. Melt treatment of LM13 and LM28 alloy reduced
the surface roughness. Heat treatment of LM13 alloy adversely
affected surface nish and while heat treatment of LM28 alloy
improved nish of machined surface.
Cutting temperature is an important factor to be considered for the evaluation of machinability of a material besides

201

Fig. 4 Number of chips per gm vs. cutting speed

relationship (at 0.046 mm/rev feed rate and 2.0 mm depth of
cut) in different conditions during machining of (a) LM13
and (b) LM28 alloy.

surface quality, magnitude of cutting force and chip disposability; as it affects the tool life to a large extent. Fig. 6(a) and
(b) show the variation of cutting temperature with increase
in cutting speed during machining of LM13 and LM28 alloy. It
can be observed that cutting temperature during the machining of both the alloys increased with increase in cutting speed
and there is linear relationship between two. Heat treatment
of LM13 and LM28 alloy increased the cutting temperature
whereas melt treatment reduced it. Comparison of cutting
temperature for two alloys revealed that lower cutting temperature was generated in machining of LM13 alloy than LM28
alloy under similar conditions.

4.

Discussion

4.1.

Cutting speed

Cutting force generated on tool during the machining is

governed by work material characteristic and machining
parameters such as cutting speed and dimensions of cut, i.e.
feed rate and depth of cut. Cutting speed affects (1) built
up edge formation tendency, (2) friction at chiptool interface and (3) work hardening characteristics (Wang et al., 1995;
Sadasivan and Sarthy, 2000; Dwivedi, 2002a; Dwivedi et al.,
2005; Dwivedi, 2000b). These factors in turn affect cutting
force. Hence the extent to which cutting speed affects the cutting force depends on how far the above factors are affected

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Fig. 6 Cutting temperature vs. cutting speed relationship

(at 0.046 mm/rev feed rate and 2.0 mm depth of cut) in
different conditions of (a) LM13 and (b) LM28 alloy.

Fig. 5 Surface roughness vs. cutting speed relationship (at

0.046 mm/rev feed rate and 2.0 mm depth of cut) for
different conditions of (a) LM13 and (b) LM28 alloy.

2001a), which may increase the average chip length under

identical conditions (Fig. 5). LM13 alloy particularly in heattreated condition generates longer chips (few number of chip
per gm) even at low speed. This may be due to increased ductility of LM13 alloy after heat treatment (Table 3). Chips from
LM28 alloy are basically very small and fragmented. Hence,
they are not inuenced much by improved chip ow action at
high cutting speed.
Probably increase in cutting speed reduces the built up edge
formation tendency and therefore reduces the surface roughness of both the alloys irrespective of their condition (Fig. 5). At
very low speed the cutting temperature is low and duration of
contact between chip and tool would be large. So there will be
sufcient time for necessary plastic ow to occur and establish
atomic bonding between chip and tool (Sadasivan and Sarthy,
2000; Dwivedi et al., 2000). This phenomenon leads to built up

by cutting speed. Cutting force remains more or less constant with increasing cutting speed in machining of both
alloys (Fig. 3). Owing to high hardness and low ductility, these
aluminium alloys (LM13 and LM28) show little tendency for
the built up edge formation. Effect of increase in average
chip length with increase in cutting speed on friction force
(increase in chiptool contact length increases the friction
force) is counteracted by decrease in friction coefcient at
chiptool interface. Therefore, inuence of increasing cutting
speed on cutting force is negligible (Dwivedi, 2000b; Dwivedi
et al., 2000; Dwivedi, 2001a).
Improved ow of chips on rake face of tool with increase
in cutting speed might reduce the tendency for breaking of
chips. Increase in speed will improve the chip ow action that
in turn would reduce the chip-breaking tendency (Dwivedi,

Table 3 Mechanical properties of alloys under investigation

Alloy

Tensile strength (N/mm2 )

Hardness (VHN)
Ductility (% age elongation)
a

Alloy condition.

LM13 alloy
As-casta

Melt-treateda

208
105
1.3

224
110
1.8

LM28 alloy
Heat-treateda
252
124
2.5

As-casta
144
117
1

Melt-treateda

Heat-treateda

152
124
1.08

183
145
1.28

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edge formation. When built up edge is broken, part of it goes

with the chip and remaining on to the work material surface
which deteriorates surface nish. At high speed, tendency of
built up edge formation reduces because of less duration of
contact that is required to establish atomic bond at elevated
temperature.
Increase in cutting speed increases the cutting temperature and there is linear relationship between the two (Fig. 6).
Work done in machining is converted into heat that eventually leads to increase in cutting temperature. Increase in work
done per unit time with increasing speed would raise the heat
concentration in cutting zone. Higher heat concentration in
cutting zone causes greater rise in cutting temperature. Reduction in number of chip per gm (conversely increase in average
chip length) with increase in cutting speed will increase the
frictional heat which in turn will increase the cutting temperature. Cutting temperature (Tc ) during machining can be
expressed as
Tc = V b
where V is the cutting speed in m/min and b is the material
dependent exponent.

4.2.

Effect of microstructure

As-cast LM13 and LM28 alloy generated higher cutting force

on tool during machining than that in melt-treated condition (Fig. 3). Melt treatment operation of LM13 alloy renes
the eutectic silicon and that of LM28 alloy reduces the size
of primary silicon particles. Fracture of comparatively coarse,
hard silicon particles would be more difcult than that of
ne silicon crystal present in melt-treated alloys (Dwivedi,
2002b; Singh et al., 2003; Dwivedi, 2000c, 2001b). Therefore,
melt treatment of both the alloys reduces the cutting force

203

generated on tool during the machining. It is analogous to

difculty experienced in machining of thick hard cementite
layer in hypereutectoid steel. Thinner the cementite layer
lesser is the resistance to cutting. It shows that the morphology of silicon crystals affects the cutting force signicantly.
Heat treatment of alloys under investigations increases the
hardness, ductility and tensile strength (Table 3). Increase
in hardness, ductility and tensile strength of alloys in heattreated condition may be attributed to increase in its cutting
resistance in respect of cutting force and cutting temperature
(Figs. 3 and 6). Greater the strength of alloy higher the cutting
force needed during machining because specic cutting pressure increases with increase in tensile strength. Therefore,
increase in hardness and tensile strength of LM13 and LM28
alloy after heat treatment may be attributed to higher cutting
force in heat-treated condition than that in as-cast and melttreated condition (Singh et al., 2003; Dwivedi, 2000c, 2001b).
Increase in ductility of heat-treated LM13 alloy increases the
average chip length that would also raise the frictional heat at
chiptool interface and hence the cutting temperature. Higher
built up edge formation tendency with increase in ductility of
heat-treated of LM13 alloy than the as-cast and melt-treated
alloy may be attributed to increase in surface roughness. Heat
treatment of LM28 alloy increases the hardness signicantly
as compared to ductility therefore it produces very small
and fragmented chips. Heat treatment of LM28 alloy reduces
surface roughness due to increase in hardness since hard
material gives better nish than the soft material (Fig. 7) as
they have lower tendency for built up edge formation (Dwivedi,
2001a).
Higher cutting force in machining of LM28 alloy than the
LM13 alloy under identical condition can be attributed to
presence of coarse polyhedral shaped primary silicon crystals, which offer greater resistance to machining because

Fig. 7 SEM images of machined (machined at 24 m/min cutting speed, 2 mm depth of cut and 0.036 mm/rev feed) surfaces
of heat-treated (a) LM13 at 50, (b) closer look of (a) at 200 and (c) LM28 alloy and (d) closer look of (c) at 200.

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of their higher hardness. Higher cutting force generated on

tool during machining of LM28 alloy than the LM13 alloy
would also increase the heat concentration in cutting zone
that will increase the cutting temperature. Higher cutting
temperature generated in machining of LM28 alloy may also
be attributed to higher silicon content, which has comparatively low thermal conductivity than aluminium. Work
material having lower thermal conductivity does not transfer the heat generated during machining process away from
cutting zone effectively, which in turn would increase the
tool and work temperature. Presence of hard and brittle
coarse non-metallic silicon crystals in LM28 alloy acts as
stress raiser and discontinuity in metallic matrix. Therefore,
fracture of such hard and brittle silicon particles promotes
formation of large number of small fragmented chips in
machining of LM28 as compared to LM13 alloy. Comparatively poor surface roughness and more fragmentation of
`
chips while machining of LM28 alloy vis-a-vis
LM13 alloy may
be attributed to brittle fracture of coarse non-metallic silicon
crystals.

5.

Conclusion

1. Increase in cutting speed increased the cutting temperature and linear relationship was found between them and
the same is primarily attributed to increased localization
of heat. Surface roughness decreased with increase in cutting speed due to reduction in build-up-edge formation
tendency.
2. Melt treatment of both the alloys (LM13 and LM28) reduced
the cutting force and cutting temperature due to renement of hard and brittle silicon particles whereas heat
treatment increased both cutting force and cutting temperature and the same was attributed to increase in the
hardness and strength of both the alloys after heat treatment. Cutting temperature was found higher in machining
of LM28 alloy than LM13 alloy due to higher hardness of
LM28.
3. Heat treatment of LM28 alloy reduced the surface roughness whereas heat treatment of LM13 alloy increased.
Reduction in surface roughness of LM28 alloy after the
heat treatment is attributed to signicant increase in hardness which in turn lowers the built up edge formation
tendency.
4. Melt treatment and heat treatment of LM13 alloy increased
the average number of chips per gm due to increase in ductility of the alloy. LM28 alloy produced higher number of
chips per gm than the LM13 alloy due to higher hardness
and lower ductility of LM28 alloy compared to LM13 alloys.

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Abraham, K.P. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second International
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Nineties and Beyond. Bangalore, pp. 211219.
Dwivedi, D.K., 2000a. Effect of cutting parameters and heat
treatment on specic-power consumption in machining of
En-31. Trans. Indian Inst. Met. 54 (45), 539543.
Dwivedi, D.K., 2000b. Studies on machining of behaviour AlSi
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Dwivedi, D.K., 2000c. Inuence of chip formation on machining
performance. Aluminium India 28 (4), 2124.
Dwivedi, D.K., 2001a. Inuence of chip formation on machining
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