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Investigation on Micro-milling of Ti–6Al–4V Alloy by PCD Slotting-Tools

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Abstract

Ti–6Al–4V is characterized by various protruding characteristics and has been found extensive applications in aerospace, biomedical device industries and other fields. However, these properties in turn bring about the increase in cutting forces, make the chips intractable to control and also shorten the tool service life, etc. A preliminary exploration of micro-milling of Ti–6Al–4V by PCD slotting-tool (MST-PCD) was launched in this paper. The most prominent advantage was the PCD slotting-tools could reach a higher linear velocity even the spindle speed was lower, which can strongly ensure the strength and stiffness of micro cutters and suppress the vibration occurrence due to the high spindle speed. The machining processes of using PCD slotting-tool and carbide micro-end mill (MEM-WC) was compared in detail. The wear experiments were conducted to confirm the effectiveness and advantage of MST-PCD. The cutting forces and surface quality, as well as the effects of tool wear on these output responses were investigated. Then model establishment and multi-objective parameter optimization were performed based on the orthogonal experiment results. Finally, verification experiments were also carried out to confirm the effectiveness of the developed models and MST-PCD. The findings in this paper can also be applied to other difficult-to-machine materials.

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Abbreviations

f z :

Feed per tooth

a p :

Axial depth of cut

a e :

Radial depth of cut

v c :

Milling speed

γ β :

Cutting edge-radius

R a :

Surface roughness

F r :

Radial force

F τ :

Tangential force

b :

Top-burr dimension of the down milling side

b 1 :

Top-burr dimension of the up milling side

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank Dr. Aqib Khan and Mr. Qaisar Ali to help with revising the language of the manuscript. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51575268), Defense Industrial Technology Development Program (No. JCKY2018605C018), Aeronautical Science Foundation of China (No. 2017ZE52055), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20190066), National Postdoctoral Foundation of China (Nos. 2017M610327, 2018T110493), Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (15KJB460018) and the open fund of the Key Laboratory of precision and micro manufacturing technology in Jiangsu.

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  1. Jinjin Han and Xiuqing Hao consider to be first co-authors and have equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Precision and Micro-Manufacturing Technology, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Jinjin Han, Xiuqing Hao, Liang Li, Li Zhong, Guolong Zhao & Ning He

  2. Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, 224051, China

    Liang Li

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  1. Jinjin Han
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  2. Xiuqing Hao
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  3. Liang Li
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  4. Li Zhong
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Correspondence to Xiuqing Hao or Ning He.

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Han, J., Hao, X., Li, L. et al. Investigation on Micro-milling of Ti–6Al–4V Alloy by PCD Slotting-Tools. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 21, 291–300 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-019-00247-1

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