Analysis of Surface Roughness of EN AW 2024 and EN AW 2030 Alloys after Micromachining

Micromachining is the most suitable technology for the production of very small components (micro-components) in the industry. It is a high-precision manufacturing process with applications in various industrial sectors, including machine building. This chapter presents the experimental study of the roughness (Ra and Rt) of aluminum alloys using a specific micro-turning process. The roughness measurements carried out show how it is possible to achieve very good surface qualities up to 0.05 mm diameter. For lower diameters, the surface quality worsens and the shape defects increase (conicity) due to the very low rigidity of the workpiece, which makes it very sensitive when passing through the forming process. The fundamental objective of this research is to analyze the surface quality of the finishes obtained in these micromachining processes and to evaluate their suitability to the specifications required by the mechanical industry (roughness, presence of burrs, shape and geometry, etc.). Predictive roughness models are proposed, with a good degree of approximation, to help characterize micromachining processes