Towards understanding wear mechanisms of parallel ultrasonic vibration-assisted cutting for titanium alloy

High tool wear often occurs in titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) machining, which greatly affects part quality and productivity. Parallel Ultrasonic Vibration-assisted Cutting (PUVC) is as the most potential cutting method for machining titanium alloy , Ti-6Al-4V is selected as the machining material in this work for experimental study to reveal the wear mechanism of PUVC. First, the concept and separation characteristics of PUVC are described. Then the characteristics of PUVC (two tools, cutting mode, feed direction, and tool utilization) are experimentally investigated for their influence on tool wear patterns. The experimental results show that cutting efficiency can be improved although increasing the number of tools leads to increased wear. Shared cutting surface (SCS) mode of PUVC reduces tool wear while non-shared cutting surface (NCS) mode increases tool wear. Reverse cutting of PUVC reduces temperature by improving heat dissipation and chip flow and reduces tool wear with insignificant notch wear . In addition, PUVC allows simultaneous machining using both cutting edges of the tool, improving tool utilization and reducing wear. This study is instructive in exploring new titanium alloy machining methods in extending tool life. • Understanding wear mechanisms of Parallel Ultrasonic Vibration-assisted Cutting (PUVC) for titanium alloy. • Investigating the different cutting modes of PUVC for the influence on tool wear patterns. • Studying the different cutting directions of PUVC for the influence on tool wear patterns. • Providing theoretical foundations on study and practical applications of the proposed method.