Investigating chip morphology and its characteristics in the high-speed milling of a Ti-6Al-4V thin plate

摘要

Titanium alloy thin-plates have been widely used in the aerospace, automotive and biomedical industries, to name a few. The chip morphologies and material properties of the thin plate were investigated under different cutting parameters in this paper. First, to further understand the variability and inherent rules of chip morphology, the characteristics of multi-surface chips (free, back, and cross-section surfaces) were observed and studied by using a scanning electron microscope. The sawtooth frequency and degree of segmentation were analyzed through the geometrical characteristics of a serrated chip. Second, variations in the chip microhardness and the wear of the mill cutter were measured and investigated under different machining parameters. Results show that the hardenability increases with the increase in cutting speed and the shear band shows higher microhardness than in other parts. In addition, the degree of insert wear decreases with proper cutting speed and feed. Some key conclusions and future work about high-speed milling thin-plate Ti-6Al-4V are given.