INFLUENCE OF WEDM-TEXTURED TOOLS ON THE MACHINABILITY OF TITANIUM GRADE-23 ALLOY

Abstract

This study has been carried out to understand and reveal the efficacy of using surface-textured tools in the dry turning of Ti grade-23 alloys. The textures have been fabricated nearer to the primary cutting edge (in the rake face) and the secondary cutting edge (in the flank face) of the tool. The method used for texture fabrication is a nonconventional machining technique, Wire Electro-discharge Machining (WEDM). Micro-grooves/channels have been fabricated in the tools (rake face and flank face). The study also aimed to reveal the influence of texture pattern as well as its position on the cutting edges. The rake face-textured tools had four varieties: vertically textured (VT-R), diagonally textured (DT-R), horizontally textured (HT-R) and cross-textured (CT-R). On the other hand, the flank face had three varieties: cross-textured (CT-F), horizontally textured (HT-F) and vertically textured (VT-F). The cutting performance was measured and compared among the aforementioned different textured tools and nontextured (NT) ones in terms of the forces ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]), temperature, tool wear and chip morphology. The study revealed that the textured tools performed better and the VT-R tool performed the best followed by the DT-R and VT-F tools as compared to NT ones for the dry turning of Ti grade-23 alloys.