What are the skills of titanium alloy machining?

The cutting force of titanium alloy is only slightly higher than that of steel with the same hardness, but the physical phenomenon of titanium alloy processing is much more complex than that of steel, which makes titanium alloy processing face great difficulties. Why? As a professional metal cutting tool supplier, Our answers for you.

The thermal conductivity of most titanium alloys is very low, only 1 / 7 of steel and 1 / 16 of aluminum. Therefore, the heat generated in the process of cutting titanium alloy will not be quickly transferred to the workpiece or taken away by the chips, but will gather in the cutting area. The generated temperature can be as high as 1000 ℃. The cutting edge of the tool will be rapidly worn, cracked and formed with chip accretion, which will produce more heat in the cutting area and further shorten the tool life.

The high temperature produced in the process of cutting destroys the surface integrity of titanium alloy parts at the same time, which leads to the decrease of parts precision and the appearance of work hardening phenomenon which seriously reduces its fatigue strength.

The elasticity of titanium alloy may be beneficial to the performance of parts, but in the process of cutting, the elastic deformation of the workpiece is an important reason for vibration. The cutting pressure makes the “elastic” workpiece leave the tool and rebound, so that the friction between the tool and the workpiece is greater than the cutting effect. The friction process also produces heat, which aggravates the poor thermal conductivity of titanium alloy.

When machining thin-walled or ring-shaped parts, this problem is more serious. It is not easy to process thin-walled titanium alloy parts to the expected dimensional accuracy. When the workpiece data is pushed away by the tool, the local deformation of the thin wall has exceeded the elastic range, resulting in plastic deformation, and the data strength and hardness of the cutting point are obviously added. At this moment, the cutting speed will become too high, which will lead to sharp tool wear.

“Heat” is a key problem in titanium alloy machining. What are the skills of titanium alloy machining?

First of all, it is necessary to select the coating for titanium alloy processing. Our blue nano-coating end mill, dedicated to titanium alloy processing. In high hardness material processing performance has been recognized by customers.

end-mill-for-titanium-alloy-machining

In addition, on the basis of understanding the processing mechanism of titanium alloy and the previous experience, the main technological know-how of titanium alloy processing are as follows:

  • The cutting force, cutting heat, and deformation of workpiece can be reduced by using positive angle blade with several shapes.
  • In order to avoid the hardening of the workpiece, the tool should always be in the feeding state during the cutting process, and the radial cutting rate AE should be 30% of the radius.
  • High pressure and large flow cutting fluid are used to ensure the thermal stability of the machining process and prevent the surface denaturation and tool damage caused by high temperature.
  • Stick to the sharp edge of the blade, blunt tool is the cause of heat accumulation and wear, easy to cause tool failure.
  • As the material becomes more difficult to process after quenching, the strength of the data is improved and the wear of the blade is added.
  • Use a large nose radius or chamfering to cut as many edges as possible. This can reduce the cutting force and heat at each point and prevent local damage. In milling titanium alloy, the cutting speed has the greatest influence on tool life VC, and the radial cutting depth AE is the second.

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