In these days of marked introduction of light metal parts, such as of alminium alloy, in mass production with a view to rationalizing production and lightening machine parts, studies on the machinability of alminium alloy are few in number as compared with those on steel and iron. Generally, in most of studies on the machinability of materials, machinability in turning has heretofore been made a subject of study, and machinability in drilling or milling has been done so in very few studies. In the case of steel and iron, there appears to be some relations between machinability in turning and that in drilling, but whether the similar relations are existent in the case of aluminium alloy or not, no one has so far been able to tell for certain.
In the present study the machinability in drilling of wrought alminium alloy, i. e., 2S, 11S, 17S, 24S, 52S and 56S, was experimented and the machining data and machininig characteristics of alloy were looked into. The machinability in drilling is usually to be determined based on various factors, for instance, drilling resistance, the life of tools, the roughness of drilling surface, chip formation, chip disposal and others. There seem to be two types of drilling: drilling under constant feeding speed and drilling under constant drilling load, if automatic production is put under consideration. In this paper there are treated drilling resistance, the roughness of drilling surface and chip formation in the case of drilling under constant feeding speed.
The resultsare that the machinability of 11ST4 alloy is superior. Those of the others run worse and worse in the order of 56SF, 24SF, 17SF and 52SF, and the worst is the machinability of 17ST4, which, however, is characterized in that machining can be easily effected if pre-drilled.
The author would offer his grateful thanks to the Scholarship Committee of the Institute of Light Metal Foundation for the pecuniary help given him in connection with the completion of this study.
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