Sustainable cooling method for machining titanium alloy

Hard to machine materials such as Titanium Alloy TI-6AI-4V Grade 5 are notoriously known to generate high temperatures and adverse reactions between the workpiece and the tool tip materials. These conditions all contribute to an increase in the wear mechanisms, reducing tool life. Titanium Alloy, for example always requires coolant to be used during machining. However, traditional flood cooling needs to be replaced due to environmental issues, and an alternative cooling method found that has minimum impact on the environment. For true sustainable cooling of the tool it is necessary to account for all energy used in the cooling process, including the energy involved in producing the coolant. Previous research has established that efficient cooling of the tool interface improves the tool life and cutting action. The objective of this research is to determine the most appropriate sustainable cooling method that can also reduce the rate of wear at the tool interface

Investigation on Tool Life and Surface Integrity when Drilling Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-5Al-4V-Mo/Fe

Machinability study on the drilling of two alpha beta titanium alloy series, Ti-6Al-4V and Ti-5Al-4V-0.6Mo-0.4Fe were conducted using an uncoated carbide drill. The effect of cutting speed on tool life, tool failure mode, cutting force and surface integrity of the drilled surface were discussed. Results showed that Ti-6Al-4V exhibited a more superior machinability property when compared to the Ti-5Al-4V-Mo/Fe alloy system. The tool wear progression when drilling Ti-6Al-4V was lower than that of Ti-5Al-4V-Mo/Fe. The tool experienced similar failure mechanisms which were non uniform wear and chipping when drilling both alloys. At high cutting speed and after prolonged machining, excessive plastic deformation was observed on the subsurface layer of the drilled surface which resulted in increase in the hardness value