Effects of tool pin profile and feed rate on wear performance of pine leaf ash/Al composite prepared by friction stir processing
Manoj Kumar Gupta
Abstract
The Pine Leaf tree is a high altitude plant that is mostly found in the Himalayan region. The pine leaf ash contains the hard compound of Si, Ca, K, Mg, and Fe which make it an alternative cost-effective reinforcement material for composites. In this paper, the surface composite of aluminum alloy reinforced with Pine Leaf Ash was developed by friction stir process (FSP) with varying tool feed rate using different profile pin tool at constant 1400 rpm. The effects of tool pin profile and feed rate on hardness and tribological properties of the fabricated surface composite were reported. It was found that composite fabricated at 56 mm/min feed rate with threaded taper pin tool exhibited highest hardness and lowest wear rate amongst all fabricated composites. The hardness and wear properties of composite fabricated with threaded pin tool improved 15.81 and 18.13%, respectively.