The effects of coolant on the cutting temperature, surface roughness and tool wear in turning operations of Ti6Al4V alloy

Abstract

The titanium alloys are widely used in aeronautical engineering and medical device materials due to exceptional mechanical properties such as tensile resistance and toughness of fractures. High thermo-mechanical loads occur in metal cutting of Titanium alloy Ti6Al4V, which can decrease life of cutting tool and increase cost of part production. In this paper, the coolant effects on the cutting temperature, surface roughness and tool wear are investigated by using the developed virtual machining system. The cutting forces during turning operations of Ti6Al4V alloy are accurately calculated in order to be used in calculation of cutting temperature and tool wear. The modified Johnson–Cook methodology is utilized to obtain the cutting temperatures along machining paths. Then, the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach is investigated to predict and evaluate the effects of coolants on the cutting temperature in turning operations of Ti6Al4V alloy. The finite element approach is employed to predict tool wear by using the Takeyama–Murata analytical model and modifying the cutting tool geometry during the chip production process. To verify the developed methodology in the study, the results of experiments for the measured cutting temperatures, surface quality and wear rate are compared to the results of virtual machining system obtained by the finite element simulation. Thus, utilizing the proposed virtual machining system in the study, cutting temperatures, surface quality and tool wear during the turning operations of Ti6Al4V alloys with and without coolant can be accurately predicted to enhance the accuracy as well as productivity in the CNC machining operations.