High performance cutting of titanium alloy based on the thermo-mechanical coupling effect

Hard-to-cut materials such as titanium alloy are widely used in aerospace industry due to their excellent properties under high temperature. However, it's difficult to machine this kind of hard-to-cut material. Cutting force and temperature are high during cutting process and tool wear is severe during machining process, thus lead to low machining efficiency. To improve cutting performance and milling efficiency of Titanium, this paper presented a cutter-workpiece engagement optimization method. The thermo-mechanical coupling effect under different cutter-workpiece engagements are simulated and analyzed for milling titanium alloy with flat-end cutter. Based on the comparison results, optimized cutting condition is recommended to control cutting force and temperature, as well as to improve machining efficiency.