Minimal quantity lubrication-MQL in grinding of Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy

Abstract

Titanium and its alloys are attractive materials due to their unique high strength–weight ratio that is maintained at elevated temperatures and their exceptional corrosion resistance. The major application of titanium has been in the aerospace industry. On the other hand, titanium and its alloys are notorious for their poor thermal properties and are classified as difficult-to-machine materials. The problems that arise during grinding of titanium alloys are attributed to the high specific energy and high grinding zone temperature. Significant progress has been made in dry and semidry machining recently, and minimal quantity lubrication (MQL) machining in particular has been accepted as a successful semidry application because of its environmentally friendly characteristics. A number of studies have shown that MQL machining can show satisfactory performance in practical machining operations. However, there has been few investigation of MQL grinding of special alloys like titanium alloys and the cutting fluids to be used in MQL grinding of these alloys. In this study, vegetable and synthetic esters oil are compared on the basis of the surface quality properties that would be suitable for MQL applications. The cutting performance of fluids is also evaluated using conventional wet (fluid) grinding of Ti–6Al–4V. As a result, synthetic ester oil is found to be optimal cutting fluids for MQL grinding of Ti–6Al–4V.