In order to achieve the objective of this experimental work, MMCs of type A356/SiC/20p (aluminium with 7.5% silicon, 2.44% magnesium, reinforced with 20% volume particles of silicon carbide (SiC)) were tested. The silicon carbide particle size ranges from 56 to 185m. A medium duty lathe with 2 kWspindle powerwas used to perform the experiments. The CNMA 120408 inserts with PCLNR 25 X25 M12 tool holder with PCD were used to turn the billets of 150-mm diameter. The
used tool geometry was as follows: Top rake angle 0◦, nose radius 0.8mm. The work material is machined at five different cutting speeds ranging from 100 to 600m/min with two feed rates of 0.108 and 0.200mm/rev and depth of cut as 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75mm. The microstructure of the work material is shown in Fig. 1 and the chemical composition of the work material is given in Table 1. Each experimental trial was carried out for 3min duration. Experimental parameters are given
in Table 2. The average surface finish (Ra) in the direction of the tool movement was measured in three different places of the machined surface using a surface roughness tester, Mitutoyo Surf test—301 with a cut-off and transverse length of 0.8 and 2.5mm, respectively. Finally surface mean roughness (Ra) in microns value of the three locations was considered for the particular trial.