TY - JOUR
T1 - Surface modification and fatigue properties of electrical discharge machined aluminum alloy 6061 using plasma etching
AU - Kuo, Chin Guo
AU - Hsu, Chun Yao
AU - Chen, Jung Hsuan
AU - Lee, Po Wei
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by National Taiwan Normal University supports (grant no. T10607000078) and Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China (grant no. MOST 106-2218-E-003-002).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © The Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - Aluminum (Al) alloy 6061 is often used in engineering applications due to its high strength, excellent fracture toughness, and corrosion resistance. Lots of material removal or machining processes would induce some undesirable side effects like surface damages, fractures, and erosions. In this study, the surface defects in the workpieces caused by the electrical discharge machining process were eliminated with the plasma etching treatment. Meanwhile, the surface integrity and the fatigue properties of the workpiece improved significantly. Surface roughness, contact angle, and morphology were investigated by varying plasma etching parameters such as the etching power, oxygen gas flow, and the etching time. Furthermore, the optimum process conditions were evaluated using statistical analyses. The workpiece treated with the plasma etching had the smallest roughness of 12.2 µm, the largest contact angle of 92°, and 25% increase in the fatigue life. These experimental results indicated that the surface characteristics of the workpiece had a great influence on the fatigue life of electrical discharge machined Al alloy.
AB - Aluminum (Al) alloy 6061 is often used in engineering applications due to its high strength, excellent fracture toughness, and corrosion resistance. Lots of material removal or machining processes would induce some undesirable side effects like surface damages, fractures, and erosions. In this study, the surface defects in the workpieces caused by the electrical discharge machining process were eliminated with the plasma etching treatment. Meanwhile, the surface integrity and the fatigue properties of the workpiece improved significantly. Surface roughness, contact angle, and morphology were investigated by varying plasma etching parameters such as the etching power, oxygen gas flow, and the etching time. Furthermore, the optimum process conditions were evaluated using statistical analyses. The workpiece treated with the plasma etching had the smallest roughness of 12.2 µm, the largest contact angle of 92°, and 25% increase in the fatigue life. These experimental results indicated that the surface characteristics of the workpiece had a great influence on the fatigue life of electrical discharge machined Al alloy.
KW - electric discharge machining
KW - fatigue life
KW - Plasma etching
KW - statistical analyses
KW - surface quality
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U2 - 10.1177/1687814017752484
DO - 10.1177/1687814017752484
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041625135
SN - 1687-8132
VL - 10
JO - Advances in Mechanical Engineering
JF - Advances in Mechanical Engineering
IS - 1
ER -