Research on the cold plasma jet assisted cutting of Ti6Al4V

Abstract

A long, quasi-homogeneous cold plasma jet was generated through a homemade cold plasma jet generating device. Friction-wear test and assisted cutting of Ti6Al4V were studied under air, nitrogen, and nitrogen cold plasma jet (NPJ) atmospheres. The friction coefficient under nitrogen jet was small, and the wear appearance was smooth at low-speed friction. At high-speed friction, the friction coefficient under NPJ was the smallest, which declined by 70 % compared with that under air atmosphere. The scratches and adhesive traces on the friction surface were the lightest as well. The lubrication and cooling effects were not evident under low-speed cutting, whereas the NPJ enabled the radial force Fy and the average flank wear width VB to decrease by nearly 40–47 % respectively under high-speed cutting compared with the ones under air atmosphere. Results show that the NPJ assisted cutting has little influence on the surface roughness, residual stress, and work hardening of workpieces, while the machinability of Ti6Al4V can be effectively improved.