Machining of titanium alloys for medical application: a review

Titanium alloys for their characteristics have acquired a prominent position in numerous industrial applications. Due to its properties, such as high resistance to corrosion, reduced density, high specific strength and low Young's modulus, titanium alloys became indispensable as a biomaterial with high use in medical devices, with special emphasis in the area of orthopaedics. Problems associated with its manufacturing by conventional machining processes, such as milling, turning and drilling are well known and studied. Its low thermal conductivity, high chemical reactivity, high hardness at high temperatures make it classified as difficult to machine material. Despite the already extensive knowledge about machining titanium alloys problems, and the constant technological development to overcome them, it is not yet possible to machine this material like other metals. This work is based on research and review papers from Scopus and Scholar from 2010 to 2020 and addresses the main issues related to the machining of titanium alloys used in medical devices manufacturing and current solutions adopted to solve them. From the research consulted it was possible to conclude that it is consensual that for milling, turning and helical milling cutting speed can reach up to 100m/min and up to 40m/min in drilling. As for feed rate, up to 0.1mm/tooth for milling and helical milling and up to 0.3mm/tooth for turning and 0.1mm/rev for drilling. Also, that Minimum Quantity Lubrication is a valid and efficient solution to mitigate titanium alloys machining problems.publishe

Machining Fibre Metal Laminates and Al2024-T3 aluminium alloy

The present thesis investigates the machining performance of an aerospace structural material commercially known as GLARE fibre metal laminate and its metal constituent aluminium Al2024-T3 aerospace alloy using commercially available solid carbide twist drills. The objective is to quantify the effects of the cutting parameters and two modern coolant technologies on cutting forces and a number of hole quality parameters. The generated drilling cutting forces, quality of machined hole and drilling-induced damage and defects when drilling GLARE fibre metal laminates were experimentally studied. Drilling-induced defects and damage investigated were surface roughness, burr formation at both sides of the workpiece and interlayer burr, hole size and circularity error, chip formation as well as damage described at the macro level (delamination area) using computerised tomography (CT) scan, and at the micro level (fibre matrix debonding, chipping, adhesions, cracks) using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results have been statistically analysed using full factorial and response surface methodology statistical techniques to generate multiple regression models which makes it attractive as an indirect tool predicting the machining outputs prior the start of actual tests. Moreover, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to determine the percentage contribution of drilling parameters on cutting forces and hole quality outputs. The results indicated that the presence of coolant during the drilling process of GLARE could significantly improve hole quality. The use of cryogenic liquid nitrogen was found to eliminate the formation of waste on the borehole surface and burr formation at the hole exit. Using minimum quantity lubrication coolant was found to reduce the workpeice temperature compared to dry drilling at room temperature. Both coolants reduced the surface roughness compared to dry drilling but increased the cutting forces especially when using cryogenic liquid nitrogen. The cutting parameters results indicated that a maximum operating feed rate of 300 mm/min and a maximum spindle speed of 6000 rpm is recommended for superior hole quality results. Moreover, drilling at or below those levels of cutting parameters did not lead to severe delamination or fibre pull outs in the laminate compared to the higher cutting parameters used in the study. In addition, the fibre orientation and workpiece thickness were found to play a significant role on surface roughness and hole size but did not have a considerable impact on cutting forces due to the small thickness of glass fibre layers in the laminate. Adhesion and built up edge was found to be the main wear mechanism when drilling monolithic aluminium alloy, while adhesion and abrasion of the primary and secondary facets of the drill were identified to be the main wear process that occurs in drilling GLARE laminates

Mist Characterization in Drilling 1018 Steel

Minimum quantity lubrication replaces the traditional method of flood cooling with small amounts of high-efficient lubrication. Limited studies have been performed to determine the characteristics of mist produced during MQL. This study investigated the mist concentration levels produced while drilling 1018 steel using a vegetable based lubricant. ANOVA was performed to determine whether speed and feed rates or their interactions have a significant effect on mist concentration levels and particle diameter. It was observed that the concentration levels obtained under all four speed and feed rate combinations studied exceeded the current OSHA and NIOSH standards

Thermal Aspects in Deep Hole Drilling of Aluminium Cast Alloy Using Twist Drills and MQL

AbstractThe deep hole drilling process with solid carbide twist drills is an efficient alternative to the classic single-lip deep hole drilling, due to the generally higher feed rates possible and the consequently higher productivity. Furthermore the minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) can be applied, in order to reduce the production costs and implement an environmentally friendly process. Because of the significantly reduced cooling performance when using MQL, a higher heat loading results for the tool and the workpiece. This paper presents the investigations of the temperature distribution in the workpiece and the heat balance of the deep hole drilling process

Effect of machining parameters and cutting tool coating on hole quality in dry drilling of fibre metal laminates

Fibre metal laminates (FMLs) are a special type of hybrid materials, which consist of sheets of metallic alloys and prepregs of composite layers stacked together in an alternating sequence and bonded together either mechanically using micro hooks or thermally using adhesive epoxies. The present paper contributes to the current literature by studying the effects of three types of cutting tool coatings namely TiAlN, AlTiN/TiAlN and TiN on the surface roughness and burr formation of holes drilled in an FML commercially known as GLARE®. While the cutting tool geometry is fixed, the study is also conducted for a range of drilling conditions by varying the spindle speed and the feed rate. The obtained results indicate that the spindle speed and the type of cutting tool coating had the most significant influence on the achieved surface roughness metrics, while tool coating had the most significant effect on burr height and burr root thickness. The most important outcome for practitioners is that the best results in terms of minimum roughness and burr formation were obtained for the TiN coated drills. However, such drills outperform the other two types of tools, i.e. with TiAlN and AlTiN/TiAlN coatings, only when used for short series of hole drilling due to rapid tool deterioratio

Experimental Investigation of the Influence of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing on the Machinability of Titanium Parts

The manufacturing of titanium airframe parts involves significant machining and low buy-to-fly ratios. Production costs could be greatly reduced by the combination of an additive manufacturing (AM) process followed by a finishing machining operation. Among the different AM alternatives, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) offers deposition rates of kg/h and could be the key for the production of parts of several meters economically. In this study, the influence of the manufacturing process of Ti6Al4V alloy on both its material properties and machinability is investigated. First, the mechanical properties of a workpiece obtained by WAAM were compared to those in a conventional laminated plate. Then, drilling tests were carried out in both materials. The results showed that WAAM leads to a higher hardness than laminated Ti6Al4V and satisfies the requirements of the standard in terms of mechanical properties. As a consequence, higher cutting forces, shorter chips, and lower burr height were observed for the workpieces produced by AM. Furthermore, a metallographic analysis of the chip cross-sectional area also showed that a serrated chip formation is also present during drilling of Ti6Al4V produced by WAAM. The gathered information can be used to improve the competitiveness of the manufacturing of aircraft structures in terms of production time and cost.This research was funded by the vice-counseling of technology, innovation, and competitiveness of the Basque Government grant agreement kk-2019/00004 (PROCODA project

Micromachining

To present their work in the field of micromachining, researchers from distant parts of the world have joined their efforts and contributed their ideas according to their interest and engagement. Their articles will give you the opportunity to understand the concepts of micromachining of advanced materials. Surface texturing using pico- and femto-second laser micromachining is presented, as well as the silicon-based micromachining process for flexible electronics. You can learn about the CMOS compatible wet bulk micromachining process for MEMS applications and the physical process and plasma parameters in a radio frequency hybrid plasma system for thin-film production with ion assistance. Last but not least, study on the specific coefficient in the micromachining process and multiscale simulation of influence of surface defects on nanoindentation using quasi-continuum method provides us with an insight in modelling and the simulation of micromachining processes. The editors hope that this book will allow both professionals and readers not involved in the immediate field to understand and enjoy the topic