Cutting Forces and Tool Wear in Dry Milling of Ti6Al4V

Abstract

Titanium alloys are difficult-to-cut materials. This paper presents an experimental study of the effects of different cutting conditions and tool wear on cutting forces in dry milling Ti6Al4V with coated carbide inserts. The experimental results show that the peak forces increase with the increase in the feed rate and depth of cut. With the cutting speed increment in the range from 50 m/min to 150 m/min the peak forces decrease, while at further higher cutting speeds investigated peak forces increase. The decrease of the peak forces is due to thermal softening of the workpiece material and the increase is because of the strain hardening rate of Ti6Al4V. The tool wear experiment reveals that the major tool wear mechanism is the flank wear. The variations of the peak forces are caused by both the tool wear propagation and the thermal effects.