Milling of aerospace titanium alloy parts


In many aerospace applications, titanium and its alloys are replacing traditional aluminum alloys. Today, the aerospace industry consumes about 42% of the world's total titanium production, and from now until 2010, the demand for titanium materials is expected to continue to grow at double-digit rates. New generation aircraft need to take full advantage of the performance offered by titanium alloys, both in the commercial and military markets, and are driving demand for titanium. New models such as the Boeing 787, the Airbus A380, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (also known as Lightning II) use a large amount of titanium.

Advantages of titanium alloy materials

Titanium alloys have high strength, high fracture toughness, and good corrosion resistance and weldability. As the aircraft fuselage increasingly adopts composite structures, the proportion of titanium-based materials used in the fuselage will also increase, because the bonding performance of titanium and composite materials is far superior to that of aluminum alloys. For example, titanium alloys can increase the life of the fuselage structure by 60% compared to aluminum alloys.

The extremely high strength/density ratio of titanium alloys (up to 20:1, or 20% weight reduction) provides a solution for reducing the weight of large components, which is a major challenge for aircraft designers. In addition, the inherent high corrosion resistance of titanium alloys (compared to steel) saves the cost of daily operation and maintenance of the aircraft.

Need more processing power

Titanium alloys are generally considered to be difficult to machine materials because they are more difficult to process than ordinary alloy steels. The metal removal rate of a typical titanium alloy is only about 25% of that of most ordinary steel or stainless steel, so it takes about four times as long to process a titanium alloy workpiece.

In order to meet the growing demand for titanium alloy processing in the aerospace industry, manufacturers need to increase production capacity, so it is necessary to better understand the effectiveness of titanium alloy processing strategies. Typical titanium alloy workpieces are machined from forging until 80% of the material is removed to obtain the final workpiece profile.

With the rapid growth of the aerospace component market, manufacturers have felt that they are unable to cope with the increased processing requirements due to the low processing efficiency of titanium alloy workpieces, resulting in a significant strain in the processing capacity of titanium alloys. Some leading manufacturers of aerospace manufacturing have even publicly questioned whether existing machining capabilities can complete the processing of all new titanium alloy workpieces. Since these workpieces are usually made of new alloys, it is necessary to change the machining method and tool materials.

Titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V

Titanium alloys come in three different structural forms: alpha titanium alloys, alpha-beta titanium alloys, and beta titanium alloys. Commercial pure titanium and α-titanium alloys cannot be heat treated, but usually have good weldability; α-β titanium alloys can be heat treated, and most of them also have weldability; β and quasi-β titanium alloys can be completely heat treated, and generally Also has weldability.

Most of the common α-β titanium alloys used in turbine engines and fuselage components are Ti-6Al-4V (AllvacTi-6-4, referred to as Ti-6-4). Ti-6-4 is used here to represent ATIAllvac. Titanium alloy, the company's main supplier of titanium alloys (a recent contract with Boeing for a $2.5 billion long-term supply contract for titanium alloys). In addition, ATISTellaram, which develops processing solutions with ATIAllvac, also uses these titanium alloy codes to describe processing requirements.

Ti-6-4 has excellent strength, fracture toughness and fatigue resistance, and can be made into various product forms. Annealed Ti-6-4 can be widely used in structural parts. Ti-6-4 can be used to produce a wide range of parts for different applications through small changes in chemical composition and different thermomechanical treatment processes.

Titanium alloy Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr

Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr (Ti-5-5-5-3 for short) is a new type of titanium alloy with market influence. Compared to beta titanium alloys and alpha-beta titanium alloys, such quasi-beta titanium alloys provide the fatigue fracture toughness required in aircraft component applications where higher tensile strength is required.

Compared with traditional titanium alloys (such as Ti-6-4 and Ti-10-2-3), Ti-5-5-5-3 has a forgeable shape and a final tensile strength of 180 ksi after heat treatment. Performance such as thousands of pounds per square inch makes it the most promising material for the manufacture of advanced components and landing gear for aircraft.

Ti-5-5-5-3 can obtain excellent mechanical properties by performing a dissolution heat treatment below the β transformation temperature or an annealing treatment above the β transformation temperature while appropriately controlling the grain size and precipitation in the microstructure. The beta transition temperature is the specific temperature of the composition at which the alloy transitions from an alpha-beta microstructure to a full beta microstructure.

Changes in chemical properties and microstructure allow titanium alloys to achieve a wide range of performance combinations and are therefore widely used in aerospace components. The processing difficulty of Ti-5-5-5-3 is about 30% more than that of Ti-6-4, so the parts manufacturer using this new alloy is developing to not shorten the tool life and prolong the production cycle. The corresponding processing technology.

Material hardness is a key factor when processing titanium alloys. If the hardness value is too low (<38HRC, the titanium alloy will be sticky, the cutting edge will easily produce built-up edge. The titanium alloy with higher hardness (>38HRC) will abrade the tool material and wear the cutting edge. Therefore, Proper selection of machining speed, feed and cutting tools is essential.

Requirements for cutting tools

In order to meet production cost, processing quality and on-time delivery requirements, new workpiece materials and part design have put pressure on aerospace component manufacturers. The processing of these new materials has changed the requirements for cutting tools. Increasing metal removal rates, tool life, product quality and predictable tool life without damage are critical for efficient and safe machining. “Difficult to machine” is a relative concept, and efficient productivity can be achieved by the correct combination of cutting tools and machining parameters.

When machining aerospace-grade titanium alloy workpieces, cutting tool manufacturers control the cutting heat generated by the tool-work interface by increasing the substrate density, designing specific tool geometries, using precise cutting edge grinding techniques, and developing new coating techniques. The method greatly improves the performance of the tool.

An important feature of titanium alloys in milling is the poor thermal conductivity. Due to the high strength and low thermal conductivity of titanium alloy materials, extremely high heat of cutting is produced during processing (up to 1200 ° C if uncontrolled). The heat is not discharged with the chips or absorbed by the workpiece, but is concentrated on the cutting edge. Such high heat will greatly shorten the tool life.

With special processing technology, it is possible to improve tool performance and life (using the right processing technology to control the temperature, the temperature can be reduced to 250 ~ 300 ° C).

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