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Surface modification of aluminum alloy by wire electrical discharge machining with SiC nanofluid dielectric

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Abstract

To enhance the friction and wear properties of Al 6061 machined surface, a surface modification solution by high-speed wire electrical discharge machining (HS-WEDM) with emulsion-based SiC nanofluid dielectric was proposed. A composite coating was formed on the substrate surface, and its surface topography, chemical composition, surface roughness, microhardness, and friction behavior were studied using SEM, EDS, FT-IR, OM, and machined surface performance tests. The results show that the composite coating formed in situ on the surface of the Al 6061 is a double-layer structure consisting of a recast and a covering layer, which exhibit superior biological properties. The wear rate is reduced by 92% compared to the substrate, and the friction coefficient is reduced to less than 0.2 for both Al alloys machined in emulsion and emulsion-SiC nanofluids. In addition, the wear lifetime of samples machined in emulsion-SiC nanofluids is increased by a factor of 25 compared to those machined in emulsion, which is attributed to the superior wear resistance of the coating due to its superior toughness, strong bearing capacity, and self-lubricating properties.

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Funding

This study was supported in part by grants from Supported by the Opening Project of Material Corrosion and Protection Key Laboratory of Sichuan province (2021CL21), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51301115), and Graduate Innovation Fund of Sichuan University of Science & Engineering (y2021030).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Material Corrosion and Protection Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Zigong, 643000, China

    Cuixia Guo & Wenling Xie

  2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering, Zigong, 643000, China

    Cuixia Guo, Xing Wang, Wenling Xie & Sheng Lai

Authors
  1. Cuixia Guo
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  2. Xing Wang
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  3. Wenling Xie
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Contributions

Cuixia Guo: methodology, validation, data curation, and writing—original draft

Wenling Xie: formal analysis, investigation, conceptualization, resources, methodology, and supervision

Sheng Lai: review and editing

Xing Wang: writing—review and editing

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Correspondence to Xing Wang.

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Guo, C., Wang, X., Xie, W. et al. Surface modification of aluminum alloy by wire electrical discharge machining with SiC nanofluid dielectric. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 127, 3525–3536 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11771-w

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