Workpiece temperature investigation in micromilling of titanium alloy

Abstract

The study of the micromachining process of titanium alloys has intensified due to a greater need to develop micro components for the medical sciences. However, the investigation of the behavior of process variables is still incipient, complex and challenging. Heat and temperature distributions are important aspects for any machining process, so the main objective of this work is to investigate temperature distributions during the micro-milling of the Ti-6Al-4 V alloy combined experimentally with numerical simulations. To carry out the experiments, AlCrN coated carbide end mill tools were used for machining micro slots. During machining, the workpiece temperature is measured using T-type thermocouples welded to the workpiece surface aligned with the tool path. The temperature distribution was also obtained by numerical simulation using the commercial software Third Wave AdvantEdge (version 7.4015). The experimental results showed that the temperature on the surface of the specimen increases from the up-milling side to the down-milling side and that it tends to increase with tool wear. However, the simulated data showed that the temperature is higher in the center of the slot, which is the point with the highest undeformed chip thickness.