A novel dealloying assisted machining method to improve the machinability of NiTi alloy as a typical high toughness difficult-to-machine material

Abstract

High quality and high efficiency cutting process is of great significance to the components manufacturing related to machinability of workpiece materials. As a typical difficult-to-machine material induced mainly by high toughness, NiTi alloy faces challenges such as high cutting force and difficult chip breaking during the cutting process. To solve these problems, this paper presents a novel surface dealloying assisted machining method, i.e., the preparation of nanoporous structures on the workpiece surface with dealloying treatment, to improve the machinability of NiTi alloy. Based on high speed in-situ imaging of material removal process, the presence of dealloyed layer leads to a segmented flow mode instead of homogeneous severe plastic deformation without dealloying treatment. The change in material removal mode is beneficial to decrease the cutting force and energy and improve the machined surface quality. The embrittlement effect of dealloyed layer inhibits material plastic flow and promotes periodic crack nucleation and propagation. An analytical model is developed to characterize the brittle crack propagation, which provides theoretical basis for explaining embrittlement effect of dealloyed layer. This work verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method to modify the machinability of NiTi alloy and provides new ideas for the development of manufacturing processes.