TO COAT OR NOT TO COAT WHEN CUTTING IT COOL WITH TITANIUM ALLOYS

The popularity of titanium alloys is on the increase, predominantly in aerospace, but also in biomedical applications, chemical processing and upmarket sporting goods. This in turn increases the demand for titanium, which inevitably increases the production rate. The manufacturing rate increases as the production rate of titanium alloy parts increases. For manufacturing to keep pace with these high demands for titanium parts, the cutting and milling speeds need to increase, which causes the machining temperature to increase dramatically. The thermal conductivity of titanium alloys is exceptionally low when compared to that of high carbon steels. Cooling is therefore crucial for productive titanium alloy machining. Another possibility to increase the production rates of titanium alloy parts would be to use coated tools for the machining of the alloys. Some previous studies, however, show that there is minimal or no economic benefit to coating the machining tools. This study investigates the effects of combining cooling and coated tools simultaneously for the more effective machining of titanium alloys