Evaluation of the surface roughness of Ti-6Al-4V for surface grinding under different cooling methods using conventional and vegetable oil-based cutting fluids

Abstract

In this research study, the surface roughness of medical grade Ti-6Al-4V alloy was evaluated to understand the effects of cutting fluids, cooling methods, and grinding depths after surface grinding with alumina wheel. Three cutting fluid types namely sunflower oil, sunflower oil-based cutting fluid, and conventional cutting oil were applied to the grinding zone using two cooling methods: minimum quantity lubrication and wet cooling methods. The grinding was undertaken at grinding depths of 0.005, 0.010, and 0.015 mm. The surface roughness of the ground surfaces was determined using a surface profiler. An analysis of variance demonstrated that the individual contributions of cutting fluid types, cooling methods and grinding depths to surface roughness were 42.7 %, 8.46 % and 40.61 % respectively. The design of the experiment was done using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array to determine the collective contributions of the grinding parameters. The analysis of the signal-to-noise ratio shows that the optimal surface roughness of Ti-6Al-4V was obtained with sunflower oil-based cutting fluid, a minimum quantity lubrication of 0.67L/h and a grinding depth of 0.005 mm. This study provides novel evidence of how grinding parameters can be used collectively to optimize Ti-6Al-4V machining.