Influence of High-Pressure Coolant Assistance on the Machinability of the Titanium Alloy Ti555-3

The origin of this article is the quantification of productivity gains and the improvement in surface integrity seen for a recent titanium alloy that is seeing increasing use in the aeronautical industry. The Ti555-3 titanium alloy, which is starting to find greater application in the aeronautical field, exhibits certain difficulties in terms of machining. High Pressure Coolant (HPC) assisted turning consists of projecting a high pressure coolant jet between the chip and the tool. Comparisons are made between assisted turning using variable jet pressure and conventional turning (dry and classical lubrication). It is shown that it is possible to improve productivity by using HPC-assisted machining. The results highlight good chip fragmentation and a great improvement of tool life with HPC assistance. Surface integrity is also shown to be improved, through surface roughness parameters that decrease, and surface residual stresses that become more compressive. These effects have been attributed to the thermo-mechanical action of the coolant jet resulting in lower cutting forces, lower coefficient of friction and lower temperature in the cutting zone.