Title: An investigation into the machining characteristics of titanium using ultrasonic machining

Authors: Jatinder Kumar, J.S. Khamba, S.K. Mohapatra

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Ghaziabad 201009, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College of Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala 147004, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala 147004, India

Abstract: This paper presents a review on the problems encountered in machining titanium and application of USM in machining titanium and its alloys. Experiments have been conducted to assess the effect of three factors – tool material, grit size of the abrasive slurry and power rating of ultrasonic machine on machining characteristics of titanium (ASTM Grade I) using full factorial approach for design and analysis of experiments. It has been concluded that all factors have significant effect on Material Removal Rate (MRR), Tool Wear Rate (TWR) and surface roughness of the machined surface. Two-way interactions having significant effect on MRR, TWR and surface roughness have also been identified using Minitab14 software. The levels for each factor that contribute the most to the variation in machining performance of USM of titanium have also been established. It has been concluded that titanium is fairly machinable with USM process. Moreover, the surface finish obtained is better than many of the other non-traditional processes.

Keywords: ultrasonic machining; USM; titanium machining; titanium alloys; design of experiments; DOE; full factorial design; abrasive slurry; grit size; power rating; work hardening; material removal rate; MRR; tool wear rate; TWR; surface roughness; tool material; surface finish; machinability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2008.017631

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2008 Vol.3 No.1/2, pp.143 - 161

Published online: 23 Mar 2008 *

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