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This paper studies the effects of soluble cutting fluid-based CuO Nanofluid on machining force and surface roughness in turning of hardened AISI 4340 tool steel. These influences, Moreover, are compared with the outputs of similar tests through dry and soluble cutting fluid. The obtained results showed 1% volume fraction of CuO Nanoparticles added to soluble oil as cutting fluid was considerably reduced machining force and surface roughness in comparison to soluble cutting oil and dry. The investigations indicated that CuO Nanofluid reduced surface roughness and machining force by 49% and 24% respectively. Moreover, the results illustrated that the lowest surface roughness obtained in cutting speed 250 m/min, feed rate 0.1 mm/rev and cutting nanofluid.

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The erosion of core boxes caused due to sand shooting in core molding process is one of major concerns of foundry industry. This paper study the effect of impact angle, blasting pressure of sand particles and the type of heat treatment on erosion of AISI H13 tool steel that is widely used in producing core dies. The workpiece material used in this study was AISI H13 tool steel. The tests were performed on a sand shooting machine which simulated the core molding process experimentally. The results show that the erosion of samples is a function of impact angle, shooting pressure and heat treatment as the erosion increases with the increase in shooting pressure. Among the heat treated samples the highest level of erosion has been observed for quench tempered, martempered, carburized and nitrated samples respectively. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of surface of templates show that by changing the impact angle from 20 to 90 degrees, the material removal type changes from cutting mechanism to fracture. Further analyses revealed that with increase in shooting pressure from a threshold value abrasive particles trap on the surface of the samples that makes the Mechanically Mixed Layer (MML) and so that decreases the erosion rate. Results express that silica sand causes more erosion than chromite sand; also the erosion increases with increase in size of sand particles.

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In this research the abrasive flow finishing process (AFF) of AISI H13 hot work steel was studied and the effects of various process parameters such as flow pressure (extrusion pressure), abrasive particles densities, abrasive particles sizes and the first quality of surfaces on variations of surface roughness and material removal have been investigated. The results showed that increasing the density of abrasive particles leads to increase in variations of surface roughness and material removal. Increase of extrusion pressure from 4 to 6 MPa causes the increase in variations of surface roughness and material removal and from 6 to 8 Mpa leads to decrease in the two latter. Electron microscopic results showed that increase of finishing process time over 4 hours causes a detrimental effect on the surface of the specimens, as a result of penetration and stabilization of abrasive particles in the form of broken particles. Also according the results of this paper, increasing the size of abrasive particles leads to higher variations of surface roughness and material removal, and this process is more effective in finishing of rougher surfaces.

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In the present study, in order to investigate the effect of impact angle and sand jet pressure on the erosion rate and residual stress in sand molding operation, the experiments are performed using gray cast iron, pearlitic ductile iron (PDI) and austempered ductile iron (ADI) as workpiece materials. To fulfill this objective, experimental tests are conducted in full factorial design with workpiece material, impact angle and jet pressure as input and erosive wear rate and residual stress as output parameters. According to the results, variation of impact angle of erosive particles intensively affects the erosion rate of materials in a way that, among the experiments which are carried out in lower impact angles (15 to 30°), ADI cast iron shows the maximum erosive strength however as the impact angle shifts to higher values (75 to 90°), PDI cast iron becomes more resistance against erosion. It can also be noted from the SEM images that in sand shooting process, the presence of flake graphite in gray cast iron causes more formed and grown cracks which significantly intensifies its erosion rate relative to ADI and PDI cast irons. Additionally, comparative analysis of results revealed that formation of surface micro cracks in gray cast iron material causes less induced compression residual stresses relative to ADI cast iron whose great stiffness leads to higher magnitudes of compression residual stress in sand molding operation.

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Titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is one of the most used industrial alloys that is used often in important and risky applications. One of the requirements for machining such parts is to achieve the appropriate surface integrity. Powder mixed electrical discharge machining is a process which has different mechanism compared with traditional electrical discharge machining process; and it often used in order to obtain good surface finish. In this study two different kind of Nano powders SiO2 and Al2O3 added in dielectric for machining of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy; so that the effect of adding them on the output characteristics of the electric discharge process, including removal rate, tool wear ratio, surface roughness and integrity is investigated and compared. In order to investigate surface micro cracks and heat altered layer, surface and cross section of it were studied by scanning electron microscopy imaging. The results show addition of Nano powders into dielectric, especially SiO2, increases material removal rate, the effect of Nano powders on tool wear ratio depends on machining condition and setting. SiO2 Nano powder decreases surface roughness more than Al2O3 Nano powder. Surface integrity of machined sample in terms of micro-cracks and depth of the heat altered layer is improved with the addition of nanoparticles.

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Electrolyte type, due to the nature of its constituent ions, affects the reaction rate, the uniformity of the electric field and formation of the external layer on the workpiece surface in the machining area during the electrochemical machining process, as well as it causes to create different dissolution behaviors of the workpiece. Therefore in this study the effect of sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, potassium chloride and hydrochloric acid electrolytes with different currents on the electrochemical machining characteristics of stainless steel 304, including material removal rate, side gap and surface roughness, has been investigated. The results showed that the formation of passive layer during the machining with sodium nitrate electrolyte reduces the material removal rate and side gap compared with sodium chloride and potassium chloride electrolytes. According to the experimental results the surface roughness in the sodium chloride and potassium chloride electrolytes is decreased by increasing the machining current, but increases in the sodium nitrate electrolyte. Also the material removal rate slight increase and side gap increase at sodium chloride, sodium nitrate and potassium chloride when combined with hydrochloric acid. On the other hand, the surface roughness reduces in the combined sodium chloride and potassium chloride electrolytes, but increases in the combined sodium nitrate electrolyte.

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This paper experimentally investigated the effects of electrical discharge machining processes parameters on fatigue resistance of 16MnCr5 alloy steel. 16MnCr5 alloy steels have good wear resistance. For this purpose, pulse current and pulse time have been considered as variables in the process. The selected EDM parameters were pulsed current (8, 16 and 32A) and pulse time (25, 100 and 400µs). Tests were conducted in full factorial mode and the R. R. Moore fatigue test machine was used to determine the fatigue life of components. The results show that by increasing the spark current and pulse duration 16MnCr5 alloy steel fatigue life is reduced. Respectively, the greatest resistance to fatigue achieved at current of 8A and pulse time of 25 microseconds and lowest resistance to fatigue achieved at pulse current of 32A and pulse time of 400 microseconds. Resistance to fatigue crack depends on cracks density on the surface of the workpiece and heat-affected zone, where the density of cracks increase resistance to fatigue will be reduced. Also in the specimens that have low resistance to fatigue, fatigue cracks are initiated from multiple points of the cross-section. It seems the reason for this phenomenon is the high surface roughness in the samples. EDM machining with high energy sparks can decrease the fatigue strength of 16MnCr5 by as much as factors of 3-5.

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Abrasive flow machining (AFM) is a relatively new process with low material removal ratio for deburring, removing recast layers and finishing industrial components with complex shapes among non-conventional machining processes. In this process, the finishing is handled by flowing of the composition of viscoelastic and abrasive particles on workpiece surface, under the pressure of piston. In this research, the abrasive flow machining process of H13 tool steel with applied an external magnetic field around the workpiece for improve the material removal ratio and surface roughness has been investigated and the effect of magnetic field intensity, abrasive particles mesh and the hardness of workpiece as the input parameters on the process outputs including surface roughness and material removal ratio was studied. Also the regression model of MRR and surface roughness was developed and variance analysis was performed. Results of experiments indicated that increase in abrasive-particles mesh leads to decrease surface roughness and material remove ratio and increase in magnetic field intensity causes to increase material removal ratio and decrease surface roughness. Also the material removal ratio is decreased with increasing of workpiece hardness and on the same condition; better surface finish was achieved in the case of harder workpiece.

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Electrical discharge machining is one of the usual and widely used machining processes for machining hard metals and alloys which has low machinability by traditional machining methods. Due to the thermoelectric nature of this process, changes in metallurgical and mechanical properties of machined surface and development of residual stresses in components are inevitable. In this research machining of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy is conducted by ultrasonic assisted electrical discharge machining process and the effects of ultrasonic vibration of tool on the machining efficiency, surface integrity such as surface micro-cracks, residual stress and surface hardness has been evaluated. Machined surface were imaged by scanning electron microscopy imaging to study the size and distribution of surface micro-cracks. Residual stresses along the depth of the machined surface, evaluated using Nano indentation technique and hardness of discharged surface is measured using a micro hardness measuring instrument. The results show that applying ultrasonic vibration increases electrical discharge machining process efficiency (about 90%), reduces the amount and size of surface micro-cracks, changes residual stress distribution and decreases the amount of it (average 17%); Increases of surface hardness caused by ultrasonic assisted electrical discharge machining process is 13% more than the traditional electrical discharge machining process.

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The aim of the current research was to investigate the effect of pressure gradient in the gap on morphological and geometrical characteristics of the powder synthesized by electrical discharge method and optimizing it. Electrical discharge is a modern and high performance approach towards yielding ultrafine powder. The pressure gradient was inducted by pulsed flushing using various current flows of deionized water and ethanol and, two rods of graphite and tungsten were used to yield tungsten carbide powder. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images show that the powder contains both electrodes' material and is within nano range. Furthermore, the SEM images demonstrate that with increasing pressure gradient there is a decline in powder agglomeration. Particle Size Analysis (PSA) results reveal that the mean particle size of the powder produced in deionized water and ethanol is approximately 100nm and the particles produced in ethanol are smaller. Moreover, the size of the crystals of the synthesized particle are within 30-44 nm range. X-ray diffraction showed that the dominant phases of the powder in ethanol and deionized water are WC1-x and W2C respectively. Overall, the results prove that causing steep gradient in the gap, it is possible to synthesize geometrically uniform powder with decent production rate.

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Electric discharge machining is one of the most widely used non-traditional machining techniques which use thermal energy for machining in small dimensions, machining complex shapes and machining hard materials with high strength such as ceramics and heat-treated steels. In this study the ultrasonic vibrations and magnetic field assisted EDM process as a new hybrid process was introduced and used for machining of AISI H13 too steel, to solve the EDM process limitations such as low material removal rate. In this investigation, several experiments were designed and performed based on full factorial method by selecting pulse current and pulse duration as most effective parameters of EDM process in order to study the effects of applying ultrasonic vibrations to tool electrode and external magnetic field around gap distance of EDM process, simultaneously, on material removal rate and tool wear rate. According the results, applying ultrasonic vibrations to tool electrode and external magnetic field around gap distance of EDM process, simultaneously, despite the increases of tool wear rate, increases the material removal rate as compared with EDM (60%), ultrasonic vibrations assisted EDM (40%) and magnetic field assisted EDM processes (55%) in all pulse durations and pulse currents except in pulse current of 32 A. In pulse current of 32 A, because of the interference of the influences of applying ultrasonic vibrations to tool electrode and external magnetic field around gap distance, the material removal rate and tool wear ratio are decreased.

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