Tool life enhancement in dry diamond turning of titanium alloys using an eddy current damping and a magnetic field for sustainable manufacturing

Abstract

Titanium alloys are widely applied in the aerospace, automobile, and biomedical industries for manufacturing precise components because of their excellent material properties. However, titanium alloys are regarded as difficult to cut materials due to their low thermal conductivity, the resulting serious tool wear and poor surface integrity inevitably lead to high machining cost and energy consumption. On the other hand, uses of fluid lubricant in machining processes of titanium alloys are sizable in order to provide an effective cooling media to dissipate high cutting heat generated in machining. Although the use of lubricant has been discouraged because of the drew damages to the environment and health, dry machining of titanium alloys is not practical currently as high friction force and cutting temperature induced from the dry machining environment which further accelerate and worsen tool life. Therefore, the environmental concerns cover a feasibility of dry machining of titanium alloys; In this study, a novel machining technology, a magnetic field was applied in dry single point diamond turning (SPDT) of titanium alloys to enhance diamond tool life, which aims to overcome the machining difficulties of dry machining. An eddy current damping effect reduces the machining vibration of rotating workpiece and a magnetic field enhances the thermal conductivity of tool/workpiece interface in SPDT, which help to relieve the problematic sources of tool damage in dry machining process. Under the influence of magnetic field, experimental results showed an improvement of surface integrity of machined surface, reductions of adhesive wear, flank wear and built up edge of tool as well as the machining vibration in dry SPDT. The proposed machining technology minimizes the environmental damage of wet machining, uplifting tool life and surface quality of machined components simultaneously, it offers a feasibility of environmental friendly dry SPDT of titanium alloys in practical applications, providing sustainable manufacturing for high precise products.