Effect of cutting parameters on strain hardening of nickel-titanium shape memory alloy

Nickel-titanium shape memory alloy (SMA) has been widely used as implant materials due to its good biocompatibility, shape memory property and super-elasticity. However, the severe strain hardening is a main challenge due to cutting force and temperature caused by machining. An orthogonal experiment of nickel-titanium SMA with different milling parameters conditions was conducted in this paper. On the one hand, the effect of cutting parameters on work hardening is obtained. It is found that the cutting speed has the most important effect on work hardening. The depth of machining induced layer and the degree of hardening become smaller with the increase of cutting speed when the cutting speed is less than 200 m min(-1) and then get larger with further increase of cutting speed. The relative intensity of diffraction peak increases as the cutting speed increase. In addition, all of the depth of machining induced layer, the degree of hardening and the relative intensity of diffraction peak increase when the feed rate increases. On the other hand, it is found that the depth of machining induced layer is closely related with the degree of hardening and phase transition. The higher the content of austenite in the machined surface is, the higher the degree of hardening will be. The depth of the machining induced layer increases with the degree of hardening increasing.