Experimental investigation of tool wear and chip formation in cryogenic machining of titanium alloys

Titanium alloys are one of the most important design materials for the aircraft industry. The high strength-to-density-ratio and the compatibility with carbon fibre reinforced plastic are the reasons for a raising application in this field. The outstanding properties lead to challenging machining processes. High strength and low heat conductivity affect high mechanical and thermal loads for the cutting edge. Thus, the machining process is characterized by a rapid development of tool wear even at low cutting parameter. To reach a sufficient productivity it is necessary to dissipate the resulting heat from the cutting edge by a coolant. Therefore the cryogenic machining of two different titanium alloys is investigated in this work. The results point out the different behavior of the machining processes under cryogenic conditions because of the reduced thermal load for the cutting tool. According to this investigation, the cryogenic cooling with COa enables an increase of the tool life in comparison to emulsion based cooling principles when machining the α＋β-titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V. The machining process of the high strength titanium alloy Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-6Mo requires an additional lubrication realized by a minimum quantity lubrication （MQL） with oil. This combined cool- ing leads to a smoother chip underside and to slender shear bands between the different chip segments.

Tool wear performance and surface integrity studies for milling DD5 Ni-based single crystal superalloy

Based on the results of slot milling experiments on the DD5 Ni-based single crystal superalloy(001) crystal plane along the [110]crystal direction, in this paper, efforts were devoted to investigate the tool wear process, wear mechanism and failure modes of the physical vapor deposition(PVD)-AlTiN and TiAlN coated tools under dry milling and water-based minimum quantity lubrication(MQL) conditions. The scanning electron microscope(SEM) morphological observation and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDX) elements analysis methods were adopted. Moreover, under the water-based MQL condition, the surface integrity such as surface roughness, dimensional and shape accuracy, microhardness and microstructure alteration were researched. The results demonstrated that the tool edge severe adhesion with the work material, induced by the high Al content in the PVD-AlTiN coating caused the catastrophic tool tip fracture. In contrast, the PVD-TiAlN tool displayed a steady and uniform minor flank wear, even though the material peeling and slight chipping also occurred in the final stage. In addition, due to the high effective cooling and lubricating actions of the water-based MQL method, the PVD-TiAlN coated tool demonstrated intact tip geometry; consequently it could be repaired and reused even if the failure criterion was attained. Moreover, as the accumulative milling length and the tool wear increased, all indicators of the surface integrity forehand were deteriorated.