Infiltration enhancement mechanism and surface morphology evaluation of ultrasonic-assisted microtextured tool turning Ti-6Al-4V with nanobiolubricant

Abstract

Titanium alloy serves as a critical structural material for aircraft and engine components. During the manufacturing of these titanium parts, machining, particularly turning, is a fundamental process. However, continuous turning faces a significant bottleneck: severe tool wear caused by insufficient lubricant infiltration at the tool–workpiece interface and excessive cutting forces. The nanobiolubricant minimum quantity lubrication (NMQL) turning process of biomimetic textured cutting tools empowered by ultrasound is considered to have the potential to solve the problem of tool wear during titanium alloy cutting. Nevertheless, the lubricant infiltration dynamics mechanism and tribological properties under the new process are unclear. Based on this, the synergistic effect of ultrasonic vibration on lubricant infiltration and migration was first analyzed. Subsequently, research has been conducted on the frictional properties and surface damage characteristics of four working conditions: dry cutting, NMQL, textured tool assisted NMQL (T-NMQL), and ultrasonic vibration empowered T-NMQL (UVT-NMQL). Surface roughness, surface morphology, cutting specific energy, chip morphology, and tool wear analysis have also been carried out. Furthermore, wavelet analysis has been introduced to decompose surface roughness signals into high and low frequencies, enriching the quantitative evaluation system for surface damage of titanium alloy cutting workpieces. The average cutting specific energies under dry cutting, NMQL, T-NMQL, and UVT-NMQL conditions were determined to be 2.32, 2.18, 2.01, and 0.78 J/mm³, respectively. Based on the wavelet decomposition results of surface roughness signals, it was found that the surface damage energy of NMQL, T-NMQL, and UVT-NMQL conditions decreased by 28.84%, 67.71%, and 82.12%, respectively, compared to dry cutting conditions. The infiltration enhancement effect of ultrasonic vibration is considered important reasons for reducing damage signal energy. These results provide novel research insights for evaluating surface properties in ultrasonic vibration-assisted machining processes.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

turning / ultrasonic vibration / microtexture / minimum quantity lubrication / titanium alloy / surface evaluation

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