Effect of material microstructure on tool wear behavior during machining additively manufactured Ti6Al4V

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies are increasingly applied in various industries since they provide the possibility to manufacture the components with high geometrical complexity easier and faster than traditional processes. However, the subsequent semi-finish/finish machining operations such as drilling, turning and/or milling are still necessary for AM parts to obtain the required surface textures and meet the practical requirements. As such, the AM parts usually indicate different machinability compared with conventionally produced ones in view of the different material microstructures. A comprehensive understanding of this machining effort is of great importance for similar engineering applications but not widely reported. Thus, an attempt was made in this work to address the effect of the material microstructure on the machining stability and tool wear behavior in dry drilling of the hard titanium alloys. The experimental results highlight a correlation between the tool wear behavior and material microstructures. A great number of micro-pits appeared on the tool flank face and the abrasive marks, coating delamination, as well as catastrophic failure of the cutting edge were found to be more obvious during machining the DMLS alloy. In contrast, adhesion wear followed by micro chipping and build-up edge were distinguished when machining the wrought Ti6Al4V. Meanwhile, heat treatment can improve the flow plasticity and reduce the brittleness of the AM material since catastrophic failure disappeared and chip adhesion becomes more predominant when machining the HTDMLS Ti6Al4V.