Titanium-taming technology

摘要

The increasing use of titanium is driving development of cutting technologies focused on turning it more productively. Chris Mills, senior manager for application management and support at Sandvik Coromant, Sandviken, Sweden, emphasized that chemical wear is the main failure mechanism when turning titanium and that high cutting temperatures accelerate that wear. As the hot chip slides over the tool's rake face, it is "actually pulling out cobalt from the insert," he said. Mills described a two-step approach to reducing cutting temperature. The first step is using tool geometry to reduce chip thickness. Applying a square insert with a 45 deg lead angle or a round insert thins the chip, which will thereby reduce cutting temperatures and resultant crater wear, ultimately permitting higher feed rates and extending tool life.