Fundamental Machining Characteristics of Ultrasonic Assisted Turning of Titanium Alloy Ti-6Al-4V

摘要

In this paper,a new machining method is proposed for the high efficiency turning of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V in which the cutting tool is ultrasonically vibrated.An experimental setup is constructed by installing an ultrasonic cutting unit onto a NC lathe followed by experimental investigations on the fundamental machining characteristics.The results obtained in the current work showed that (1) the cutting force decreases with the increase in the power supplying level (i.e.,the ultrasonic vibration (UV) amplitude),e.g.,the cutting force components in X-.Y-and Z-directions were decreased by 48％,45％ and 87％,respectively,once the UV has been applied to the tool at the power supplying level of 50％; (2) the cutting marks with knit pattern are formed on work-surface with UV while the parallel distributed cutting marks are generated without UV,and the surface roughness is decreased by up to 10％ when the UV is applied at an appropriate power supplying level; (3) the work-surface straightness is improved by 46％ once the UV is applied.