Experimental study on turning particle reinforced titanium matrix composites

To study the effect of cutting parameters on the surface roughness of the particle-reinforced titanium matrix composites, both cutting force and cutting temperature were studied through experiments and the machinability of Ti matrix composites was explored. The results show that when turning the composites, the cutting force increases first and then decreases as the cutting speed increases; the cutting temperature increases with the increase of the cutting speed while the temperature increase becomes slower in higher speed range; the cutting force increases significantly with the increase of particle content, but the cutting temperature decreases. In conclusion, the processed surface roughness R_a can be below 0.5 μm with the cutting parameters in the range of v=80-100 m/min, a_p=0.30-0.60 mm and f=0.06-0.10 mm/r.