A review on conventional and nonconventional machining of SiC particle-reinforced aluminium matrix composites

Among the various types of metal matrix composites, SiC particle-reinforced aluminum matrix composites (SiC p /Al) are finding increasing applications in many industrial fields such as aerospace, automotive, and electronics. However, SiC p /Al composites are considered as difficult-to-cut materials due to the hard ceramic reinforcement, which causes severe machinability degradation by increasing cutting tool wear, cutting force, etc. To improve the machinability of SiC p /Al composites, many techniques including conventional and nonconventional machining processes have been employed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the machining performance of SiC p /Al composites using conventional machining, i.e., turning, milling, drilling, and grinding, and using nonconventional machining, namely electrical discharge machining (EDM), powder mixed EDM, wire EDM, electrochemical machining, and newly developed high-efficiency machining technologies, e.g., blasting erosion arc machining. This research not only presents an overview of the machining aspects of SiC p /Al composites using various processing technologies but also establishes optimization parameters as reference of industry applications.