Development Machining of Titanium Alloys: A Review

Abstract

Titanium and its alloys are hard materials, wear resistant, high strength to weight ratio. Therefore this material become very promising, especially in aerospace application. However, its application restrict when face machining processes. This material is very hard which is very difficult to manufacture by machining. Its low Youngs modulus tends to springy and creates vibration or chatter. Moreover, it has low heat dissipation rate that make the heat concentrate in the tool tip especially in the friction surface between tool and chip. Those phenomena result in very low tool life and low quality of machined surface, in term of surface roughness, surface integrity. This article describes some efforts to overcome those problems. Categorically, there are some groups of effort, i.e. varying machining parameters, modification the tool, treatment of the material, and different method of applying the coolant. It seems that using cryogenic cooling upon the tool is the most promising new technology to machine the titanium alloy.