Wear optimization of titanium alloy cutter milled with microtextured ball-end milling cutter

Abstract

Aimed at solving the problems of tool wear and poor surface quality in milling a Ti alloy with a ball-end milling cutter, a method of applying a microtexture to a tool rake face to reduce tool wear is proposed in this article. By comparing the wear morphology of microtextured tools with that of nontextured tools after milling with the same stroke, the antifriction and antiwear mechanism of the micropit texture and the failure mode of the ball-end milling cutter are analyzed. The results of a simulation and orthogonal experiments reveal that with the increase of the micropit parameters, the wear value of the rake and rear faces first decreases and then increases. The effects of the micropit parameters on the wear value of the ball-end milling cutter decrease in the following order: distance from edge > diameter > spacing > depth. Finally, by using a multi-objective optimization method, the optimal solution set of the texture parameters of micropits is obtained by evaluating the wear values of the rake and rear faces of the ball-end milling cutters: 46 μm < diameter < 50 μm, 23 μm < depth < 26 μm, 109 μm < spacing < 112 μm, and 85 μm < distance from edge < 89 μm.