IntroductionTitanium alloys are characterized by low weight, high strength, and high corrosion resistance. This makes them particularly suitable for applications in the field of aviation. At the same time, recently, carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites have been applied to not only the structural components but also the engine parts of aircraft in order to improve fuel efficiency. As such, CFRPs, too, are being used increasingly in aircraft structures. Compared to CFRPs, though, titanium alloys feature a similar coefficient of thermal expansion, lesser galvanic corrosion, better weight characteristics, and higher strength; this explains their increasing demand.Titanium alloys are difficult to cut materials (Ezugwu and Wang, 1997, Lopez et al., 2000 and therefore the high efficiency machining is strongly required. The removable rate per unit time is an important index for evaluating the machining efficiency. Rough cutting requires high efficiency; therefore, a helical cutter with indexable inserts is typically used for this purpose. The machining efficiency of this process is improved by setting the largest possible value of the radial and the axial depth of cut. However, the sharpness of an indexable insert typically compares unfavorably with that of a solid end mill. The larger the radial depth cut, the longer is the time required for one cut; furthermore, the cutting temperature and tool wear may increase. Therefore, the cutting conditions must be set carefully in consideration of the tool life and even the cutting temperature.Separately, many experimental techniques have been developed for measuring the cutting temperature in milling.
AbstractThis study investigates the influence of cutting fluid on the cutting temperature in end milling of a titanium alloy. As the cutting temperature, the tool edge temperature was measured using a two-color pyrometer with an optical fiber. A helical cutter with an indexable insert of 50-mm diameter was used. The cutting speed was set at 100 m/min. The feed rate was set at 0.1 mm/tooth. The radial and the axial depth of cut were set at 12 and 5 mm, respectively. Under this cutting condition, a method for measuring the transitional tool edge temperature in one cut was established. One cut took ~15.22 ms under this cutting condition. In the case of up cut, the temperature under dry conditions increased rapidly at the start of cutting and then converged. The temperature under wet conditions increased slowly until 7 ms and then converged. In the case of down cut, the temperature under dry conditions increased rapidly at the start of one cut and then remained almost constant, before increasing slightly at the end of one cut. The temperature under wet condition increased rapidly at the start of one cut and then decreased slowly until the end of one cut. The larger tool edge temperature reduction effect caused by the cutting fluid was obtained near the end of one cut, where the uncut chip thickness was smaller. Due to the small uncut chip thickness, the cutting fluid is...