PREDICTION OF TOOL WEAR BASED ON CUTTING FORCES WHEN END MILLING TITANIUM ALLOY TI-6AL-4V

Research regarding tool wear in the machining of difficult materials is important because it is a significant indicator of process failure in terms of degradation of part quality, and the resulting high cost and increased process time. Prior researchers have investigated the effects of cutting parameters on tool wear and as a result, tool life has seen significant improvement. However, these studies are not concerned with tool flank wear during machining; they instead focus on tool flank wear after a certain amount of cutting distance. This study proposes a new method of predicting tool flank wear during machining that has the capability of suggesting tool failure without directly measuring the tool. For this purpose, a detailed set of experiments on end milling of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V was conducted and analyzed. Then, the resultant force output, which can be monitored during machining, was used to establish a predictive algorithm for tool flank wear. Using the increase in the resultant force as well as the total energy spent on the workpiece, it was shown that tool flank wear can be effectively predicted during machining and this can decrease the time spent on tool failure inspection and early tool change, increasing the throughput of the process.