THE EFFECT OF CUTTING PARAMETERS ON SURFACE INTEGRITY IN MILLING TI6AL4V

The objective of machining performance is to reduce operational costs and to increase the production rate while maintaining or improving the required surface integrity of the machined component. Together with industrial partners, several benchmark titanium components were selected and machined to achieve this. Titanium alloys are used extensively in several industries due to its unique strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. Its properties, however, also make it susceptible to surface integrity damage during machining operations. The research objectives of this study were to understand the effect of cutting parameters on surface integrity to ensure that machined components are within the required surface quality tolerances. The effect of cutting speed and feed rate on surface roughness, micro-hardness, and the microstructure of the work piece were studied for milling Ti6Al4V. The surface roughness increased with a greater feed rate and a decrease in cutting speed. The maximum micro-hardness was 23 per cent harder than the bulk material. Plastic deformation and grain rotation below the machined surface were found with the rotation of the grain lines in the direction of feed. There was no evidence of subsurface defects for any of the cutting conditions tested.