Chatter stability and precision during high-speed ultrasonic vibration cutting of a thin-walled titanium cylinder

Titanium alloys are widely used in the aviation and aerospace industries due to their unique mechanical and physical properties. Specifically, thin-walled titanium (Ti) cylinders have received increasing attention for their applications as rocket engine casings, aircraft landing gear, and aero-engine hollow shaft due to their observed improvement in the thrust-to-weight ratio. However, the conventional cutting (CC) process is not appropriate for thin-walled Ti cylinders due to its low thermal conductivity, high strength, and low stiffness. Instead, high-speed ultrasonic vibration cutting (HUVC) assisted processing has recently proved highly effective for Ti-alloy machining. In this study, HUVC technology is employed to perform external turning of a thin walled Ti cylinder, which represents a new application of HUVC. First, the kinematics, tool path, and dynamic cutting thickness of HUVC are evaluated. Second, the phenomenon of mode-coupling chatter is analyzed to determine the effects and mechanism of HUVC by establishing a critical cutting thickness model. HUVC can increase the critical cutting thickness and effectively reduce the average cutting force, thus reducing the energy intake of the system. Finally, comparison experiments are conducted between HUVC and CC processes. The results indicate that the diameter error rate is 10% or less for HUVC and 51% for the CC method due to a 40% reduction in the cutting force. In addition, higher machining precision and better surface roughness are achieved during thin-walled Ti cylinder manufacturing using HUVC. (c) 2020 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).