An experimental investigation into the cutting deformation mode of AA6061-T6 round extrusions

Experimental testing was completed to study the load/displacement and energy-absorption characteristics of AA6061-T6 round extrusions under a cutting deformation mode. A heat-treated 4140 steel alloy cutter was designed and manufactured with four cutting blades of approximate average thickness of 1.18 mm to penetrate through the round AA6061-T6 extrusions. The specimens utilized in this experimental investigation were tubes of lengths 200 and 300 mm with a nominal wall thickness of 3.175 and an external diameter of 50.8 mm. Results from the experimental tests showed that the cutting deformation mode exhibited a high average crush force efficiency of 0.95 compared to average values of 0.66 and 0.20 for progressive folding and global bending deformation modes, respectively. An almost constant cutting force was observed during the cutting deformation process. For both the 200 and 300 mm length tubes, the average total energy absorption was observed to be 6.11 kJ, which was independent of tube length. The mean steady-state cutting force observed was 45.58 kN and a fair correspondence was found between the theoretical predictions and the experimental results.