Effects of tool orientation and surface curvature on surface integrity in ball end milling of TC17

Tool orientation has an important effect on the surface quality of a free-form surface during ball end milling process, and the selection of tool orientation is important to ensure the surface quality. In this work, a series of milling experiments were performed by using a carbide ball end mill on a workpiece of TC17 titanium alloy. The purpose of this study was to determine the tool orientation producing optimal surface integrity. The results showed that the surface roughness in both directions was better when the rotational angle was within the range of 0 degrees similar to 90 degrees and with a constant inclination angle. In addition, inclination angle had little effect on the roughness in the feed direction, whereas a much larger or smaller angle led to greater roughness in the step direction. The tool orientation strongly affected the surface morphology. Compressive residual stress was detected on all machined surfaces. The maximum surface residual stress was obtained when the rotational angle was 90 degrees, and the surface residual stress decreased as the inclination angle increased. On this basis, four curved surface models with different curvatures were established according to the features of a blade, and the effects of inclination angle and cutter path orientation on surface integrity were studied. The results indicated that the surface roughness produced with an upward orientation varied more than that produced with a downward orientation for a steep curved surface; the value of the roughness was small for a horizontal orientation and when the machine surface was very smooth. The machined surface for a flat curved surface was smoother, and there were no obvious differences in surface morphology between the two cutter path orientations. For steep curved surfaces, the cutter path orientation had no obvious influence on the residual stress, and a greater value was obtained when the surface was much steeper. For flat curved surfaces, the residual stress had no obvious variation resulting from small changes of the inclination angle.