1/15/2021

،‫ آلياژهاي سبك‬LIGHT ALLOYS, MATERIALS ‫فصل پنجم‬

‫ & مواد و فرايند هاي‬MANUFACTURING
‫ ساخت و توليد‬PROCESSES ‫بخش هشتم‬

‫ماشينكاري آلياژهاي تيتانيوم‬

CHAPTER 5 – SECTION 8
TITANIUM AND ITS ALLOYS

MACHINING OF
TITANIUM ALLOYS
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
University of Tehran
‫ دانشگاه تهران‬،‫دانشكده مهندسي مكانيك‬

Machining Titanium alloys

Titanium alloys have unique machining characteristics.
Whereas the cutting forces may be only slightly higher
than those required for steels of equivalent hardness,
there are other features that make these alloys relatively
difficult to machine.

• In making comparisons, titanium alloys tend to be

ranked together with austenitic stainless steels.

1 2 3
high chemical relatively low
cutting reactions with modulus of
temperatures tools elasticity
A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

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Limitations in Machining Titanium Alloys

1- Low Thermal conductivity

• Thermal conductivity of titanium alloys

is only one-sixth that of steels, this
hinders the conduction of heat away
from the region being machined.

• This feature, together with the fact that

the characteristic shape of the chip
allows only a small area of contact
between chip and tool, means that
high cutting temperatures may be
generated during machining.
For example, tests conducted at similar cutting speeds
revealed that the temperature developed at the cutting
edge of a tungsten carbide tool was 700 °C for titanium
alloys and only 540 °C for a steel. Tool lives will thus be
drastically shortened in the former case unless slower
cutting speeds are used.

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

Segmented chips in Titanium Machining

Researchers attributed the formation of
segmented chips due to thermal softening in
a small shear zone that leads to
1- the formation of shear bands (adiabatic
shear bands) and
2- crack initiation and growth

the metallurgical transformation of Į-phase

(HCP) to α-phase (BCC) during cutting
process is also considered to foment the Localization of Shear leads to significant periodic variation of
adiabatic shear because this last structure machining forces and subsequently chatters vibration. Cyclic
presents larger number of slip systems variation of machining forces is not a desirable phenomenon
as it imposes fatigue to the cutting tool or may cause
chipping or breakage of cutting tool
A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

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Segmented chip Segmented chips with Abaqus CAE

formation orthogonal cutting simulation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QZ98Klssr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLOM1C5Jwks

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

Limitations in Machining Titanium Alloys

2- Galling
tendency for chips to stick to the cutting edge (galling),
particularly once the tool becomes warm.

• may also reduce tool life as fracture of the cutting edge

may occur if the titanium chip is removed when the tool
re-enters the workpiece on the next pass.
www.machiningefficiencies.com

• Titanium shows high chemical affinity towards the cobalt

binders that are found in most cutting tool materials. Due
to all these issues, the choice of cutting tool material has
been limited to carbide tools

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

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Limitations in Machining Titanium Alloys

3- relatively low modulus of elasticity

The low modulus coupled with high thrust

forces required at the cutting edge can cause
deflections in slender parts.

Distortion of that kind creates additional heat,

because of friction between the tool and
workpiece, and problems in meeting
dimensional tolerances

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

Use of Coolant for Machining Ti alloys

With pressure and direction, the coolant knocks chips off the cutting
edges and provides anti-corrosive benefits for both the machine tool
and the workpiece.

• Multi-coolant lines should not be used. It is better to use a

single line with 100% of the flow capacity to evacuate the chips
from the work area.

• Synthetic or semi-synthetic coolants should be used at proper

volume, pressure and concentrations levels. 10-12% coolant
No Cl- and Na+
concentration is mandatory. The flow to the cutting edges
should be maximized with a recommendation of 13 liters per Will cause microcracking
minute at 500 psi for through tool flow.

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

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Machining Characteristics of Different Ti Alloys

The above features apply to
all Ti alloys although the
actual machining conditions
vary with different
categories.

The difficulties associated

with mechanical machining
of Ti and its alloys can be
overcome if unwanted
metal is removed by
chemical dissolution. Thus chemical and, more particularly, electrochemical milling
techniques are sometimes used to produce shapes, the latter
employing profiled cathodes.

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

How to improve machinability of titanium

There are several ways to improve machinability of
titanium. These include

1. The use of standard coolants or lubricants and

cryogenic cooling

2. The use of alternate cutting tool materials such as

http://www.makino.com/horizontal-machining-5-axis/t2/
coated carbide cutting tools (AlSiTiN coating), which
doubled the tool life in terms of cutting time as
compared to that of uncoated carbide tooling and

3. Permanently or temporarily altering the work piece

material properties during machining.

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020

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Titanium Machining Considerations

machining of Ti must be carried out
a) with high quality tools
b) temperature-resistant tools
c) operating at comparatively low speeds
d) cooled with copious amounts of cutting
fluid
e) because of the tendency of titanium to gall
or weld to other metals, sliding contact
should be avoided, which means that deep
cuts with sharp tools are required.
f) it is necessary to ensure that both tool and
workpiece are rigidly supported.

A.Sadeghi, Light Alloys, Dept of Mech. Eng. University of Tehran, Fall 2020