Effective cooling methods for Ti6Al4V CNC milling: a review

ABSTRACT

The Ti6Al4V is an eminent material by its high strength, dimensional stability, lower weight and corrosion resistance. Its lower thermal conductivity leads to poor machinability by exhibiting metallurgical alterations. This article discusses the details of dry, wet, cryogenic, minimum quantity lubrication and hybrid cooling methods in the milling of Ti6Al4V. Dry cooling has a worse acute effect on tool life and surface quality by thermal degradation. The widespread high-pressure cooling controls heat dissipation, but cutting tools are affected by chipping and adhesion under long-run milling. In the first instance, cryogenic cooling like liquid nitrogen and liquid carbon dioxide assisted cooling shows excellent tool life and surface integrity; however, excessive uncontrolled chilling and abnormal lubrication affect milling performance. Minimum quantity lubrication with nanoparticles and their combination with multi-wall carbon nanotubes improves the machinability by balanced cooling and lubrication under the concept of green manufacturing engineering. Indirect hybrid cryogenic cooling is a new era in superalloy’s cooling methods for long-run applications. The prime drive of this review is to formulate a bridge between cooling and performance under sustainability concerns and propounds the hybrid nanofluids and indirect hybrid cryogenic cooling being the future of Ti6Al4V milling under the mapping of sustainable scale.

KEYWORDS:

• Ti6Al4V
• dry cooling
• high-pressure cooling
• cryogenic cooling
• minimum quantity lubrication with nanoparticles
• multi-wall carbon nanotubes
• hybrid nanofluids
• indirect hybrid cooling
• sustainability

Highlights

• Ti6Al4V milling becomes easier by adapting balanced cooling and lubrication at the cutting zone to seize the effect of cutting zone temperature on tool wear and surface quality. This study presents an overview of the cooling and lubrication techniques for Ti6Al4V milling.

• Hybrid nanofluid MQL with a concise amount of nanoadditives is the future requirement for cooling in CNC milling of Ti6Al4V; to be part of the Green Manufacturing Philosophy.

• The Indirect Hybrid Cryogenic Cooling method behaves like the Sustainable cooling method for Ti6Al4V milling.

• Study exhaustively discussed the cooling and lubrication techniques for Ti6Al4V milling from a Sustainability and Green Manufacturing point of view.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Supra Techno Services, Authorized Distributors for Seco Tools India Ltd. Pune and also thanks to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Bhujbal Knowledge City, Adgaon, Nashik to carry out this review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).