Machining-Induced Surface Integrity Enhancement of Ti-6Al-4V Titanium Alloy via Ultrasonic Vibration Side Milling Under High-Speed Machining and Dry Conditions

Abstract

Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy is widely used in aerospace and other fields due to its excellent performance, but conventional machining has problems such as high cutting force, high temperature, and tool wear, which leads to the difficulty of balancing surface quality and efficiency. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted machining can effectively improve machining performance. Although the cutting force and heat of ultrasonic vibration-assisted machining have been researched widely in the past, the selection of process parameters and the mechanism of surface integrity improvement under dry high-speed milling still need to be investigated in depth. In this research, we compare the surface topography, roughness, hardness, and residual stress of conventional milling (CM) and ultrasonic vibration side milling (UVSM) at four cutting speeds (40, 60, 80, and 100 m/min) and two feeds (0.01 and 0.02 mm/z) and reveal the mechanism of improving the surface integrity of Ti-6Al-4V under dry high-speed conditions. The results show that compared to CM, UVSM leads to a reduction in surface roughness, maintains a good surface profile at high feed, increases the residual compressive stress by up to 79%, and increases the surface hardness by 9.88%–14.06%. Its discontinuous cutting characteristics reduce cutting forces and heat accumulations, effectively improving surface integrity. However, higher cutting parameters lead to increased roughness and lower residual compressive stresses, requiring a balance between efficiency and quality. The research results provide process guidance for ultrasonic dry high-speed machining of Ti-6Al-4V, which is important for precision manufacturing.