Abstract
Gamma-TiAl (γ-TiAl) alloys can be used in high-end products relevant to the aerospace, defense, biomedical, and marine industries. Fabricating objects made of γ-TiAl alloys needs an additive manufacturing process called Electron Beam Melting (EBM) or other similar processes because these alloys are difficult-to-cut materials. An object fabricated by EBM exhibits poor surface finish and must undergo postprocessing. In this study, cylindrical specimens were fabricated by EBM and post-processed by turning at different cutting conditions (cutting speed, depth of cut, feed rate, insert radius, and coolant flowrate). The EBM conditions were as follows: average powder size 110 μm, acceleration voltage 60 kV, beam current 10 mA, beam scanning speed 2200 mm/s, and beam focus offset 0.20 mm. The surface roughness and cutting force were recorded for each set of cutting conditions. The values of the cutting conditions were set by the L36 Design of Experiment approach. The effects of the cutting conditions on surface roughness and cutting force are elucidated by constructing the possibility distributions (triangular fuzzy numbers) from the experimental data. Finally, the optimal cutting conditions to improve the surface finish of specimens made of γ-TiAl alloys are determined using the possibility distributions. Thus, this study’s outcomes can be used to develop intelligent systems for optimizing additive manufacturing processes.
Highlights
Gamma-TiAl (γ-TiAl) can replace titanium alloys and Inconel-718 in many engineering applications relevant to the aerospace, marine, and biomedical industry [1] because these alloys exhibit superior material properties such as high creep resistance, oxidation, and burn resistance, enhanced strength at elevated temperatures, and considerably higher specific modulus and lower density [2]
It is worth mentioning that there is no study reporting a systematic analysis on how to elucidate the relationships among the conditions and cutting performances while turning a 3D-printed object made of γ-TiAl alloys
Gamma-TiAl alloys fabricated by Electron Beam Melting can replace Ti6Al4V and other similar alloys in high-end aerospace and biomedical applications
Summary
Gamma-TiAl (γ-TiAl) can replace titanium alloys and Inconel-718 in many engineering applications relevant to the aerospace, marine, and biomedical industry [1] because these alloys exhibit superior material properties such as high creep resistance, oxidation, and burn resistance, enhanced strength at elevated temperatures, and considerably higher specific modulus and lower density [2]. The machinability of EBM-produced gamma titanium aluminide alloy was investigated in [30] They performed milling operations and studied the effects of cutting speed, feed, and cutting fluid conditions (wet, dry, and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL)) on the tool life, surface roughness, and chip morphology. Studies have reported applying laser ablation to improve the surface finish of EBM-produced parts [18] and selective laser-melted parts [35,36] Thermal processing such as laser machining results in recast layers and a heat-affected zone, resulting in a poor surface finish [37]. It is worth mentioning that there is no study reporting a systematic analysis on how to elucidate the relationships among the conditions (cutting speed, depth of cut, feed rate, insert radius, and coolant flow rate) and cutting performances (cutting force and surface roughness) while turning a 3D-printed object made of γ-TiAl alloys.
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