Machinability of engineering materials is crucial for industrial manufacturing processes since it affects all the essential aspects involved, e.g. work­load, resources, surface integrity and part quality. Two basic ma­chin­ability para­meters are the surface roughness, closely associated with the functional and tribological performance of components, and the cutting forces acting on the tool. Knowledge of the cutting forces is needed for estimation of power re­quirements and for the design of machine tool elements, tool-holders and fix­tures, adequately rigid and free from vibration. This work in­ve­stigates the in­flu­ence of cutting conditions on machinability indicators such as the main cutting force Fc and surface roughness parameters Ra and Rt when longitudinally turning CuZn39Pb3 brass alloy. Full quadratic regression models were de­veloped to correlate the machining conditions with the imparted machinability characteristics. Further on, an advanced artificial grey wolf optimization algorithm was implemented to optimize the aforementioned responses with great success in finding the final optimal values of the turning parameters.

Three Ti-6Al-4V bolts from mid-life jet aircraft failed during service operation. Each of the failed bolts were installed on a landing gear component. Metallurgical failure analysis indicated that the fracture mechanism is low temperature creep, possibly resulting from a sustained tension load over a long time. Visual inspection revealed ductile fracture morphology with no macroscopic deformation or corrosion. For all bolts fracture occurred close to the root at the first pitches of the thread. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis revealed dimple morphologies with micro-void coalescence. Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) analysis did not reveal any material deficiency that would have precipitated failure.

This paper analyses the causes of an incident in an aircraft propeller hub. The aluminum alloy propeller blade hub was detached from the plane bearing one of its two blades with the other one being jettisoned away. Stereoscopic examination of the fractured hub revealed that it was initially cracked by fatigue, with the crack initiating on the root of the third and fourth spirals and propagating form the inner to the outer. SEM analysis showed that the crack epicentres were created very close or/and on the spiral roots and were attributed to microcracks from corrosion pits and high stress concentration. Non Destructive Inspection was both used on the other side of the hub and the remaining three hubs of the plane and confirmed the presence of cracks similar to those which caused the fatigue failure of the fractured hub but at earliest stage of development.