Machining of components of Al matrix composites

The microstructure of metal matrix composites consists of hard reinforcements which are embedded in a metal matrix. The high hardness of the reinforcements leads to a difficult processing of these materials. The present paper demonstrates the machining of components of Al matrix composites for the automotive and the aircraft industry. The components are SiC particle reinforced brake drums, cylinder blocks with local Si particle and Al2O3 short fiber reinforced cylinder liners and TiB2 particle reinforced extrusion molding profiles. The investigations illustrate that good results can be achieved when machining these components by turning, boring, drilling and milling with polycrystalline diamond (PCD) or CVD diamond thick-film cutting tool materials.