Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 40364042

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

A comprehensive experimental study on surface integrity by

end milling Ti6Al4V
J. Sun, Y.B. Guo
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: End milling titanium Ti6Al4V has wide applications in aerospace, biomedical, and chemical industries.
Received 21 April 2008 However, milling induced surface integrity has received little attention. In this study, a series of end
Received in revised form milling experiments were conducted to comprehensively characterize surface integrity at various milling
13 September 2008
conditions. The experimental results have shown that the milled surface shows the anisotropic nature
Accepted 18 September 2008
with the range of surface roughness values from 0.6 to 1.0 m. Surface roughness value increases with
feed and radial depth-of-cut (DoC), but has much less variation in the cutting speed range. Compressive
Keywords:
residual normal stress occurs in both cutting and feed directions, while the inuences of cutting speed and
Titanium Ti6Al4V
Surface integrity feed on residual stress trend are quite different. The microstructure analysis shows that phase becomes
Surface roughness much smaller and severely deformed in the near surface with the cutting speed, but phase transformation
Residual stress was absent for the milling conditions. The milled surface microhardness is about 7090% higher than the
Milling bulk material in the subsurface.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 1.1. Surface roughness

Titanium alloys are widely used in aerospace, biomedical, and Machined surface roughness depends on several factors, such
chemical industries primarily due to the exceptional strength as cutting speed, tool wear, feed, tool materials and geometry, etc.
to weight ratio (Ezugwu, 2005), high temperature performance (Amin et al., 2007). Zoya and Krishnamurthy (2000) reported that
(Zoya and Krishnamurthy, 2000) and corrosion resistance (Copper, surface roughness value decreased with the increase of cutting
2006). For example, almost all titanium monolithic components speed in the range of 150185 m/min, but increased in the range
in aerospace industry are manufactured by milling (Sun and Guo, of 185350 m/min when turning + phase stabilized titanium
2008). However, titanium alloys are typically difcult-to-cut mate- alloys. Several researchers found that surface roughness values
rials due to the high strength at elevated temperatures (Kahles et al., became larger at high cutting speeds in turning Ti6Al4V (Ribeiro
1985), low modulus, low thermal conductivity (Hong et al., 1993) et al., 2003) and in end milling Ti6Al4V using WC-Co and PCD
and high chemical reactivity (Su et al., 2006). The machined tita- insert (Amin et al., 2007). As for the inuence of tool wear on sur-
nium components such as compressors of aircraft engines require face roughness, Lopez de lacalle et al. (2000) found that with the
the greatest reliability which is determined by the process induced increase of cutting speed, surface roughness value rst increased
surface integrity. However, surface integrity of milled titanium then decreased with the tool wear progression in milling using
components easily deteriorates due to the poor machinability of hard solid mills. Che-Haron and Jawaid (2005) observed the similar
titanium alloys and cyclic chip loading during milling. Milling phenomena that the surface tends to become smoother toward the
induced surface integrity, including anisotropic surface roughness, end of tool life when turning Ti6Al4V. On the contrary, Canteroa
residual stress, surface microstructure alterations and microhard- et al. (2005) reported that surface roughness value increased near
ness, has received little attention. The state-of-the-art knowledge tool failure (in terms of ank wear) in drilling Ti6Al4V. On the
on surface integrity of machined titanium components is assessed side of depth-of-cut (DoC) effect, Lopez de lacalle et al. (2000)
as follows. found that an increase of radial DoC caused an increase of surface
roughness value, while axial DoC has little inuence. Hughes et al.
(2004) showed that an increase in feed rate resulted in a larger
surface roughness value due to more feed marks. Ezugwu et al.
(2007) observed that surface nish was not affected by coolant
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 205 348 2615; fax: +1 205 348 6419.
pressures.
E-mail address: yguo@eng.ua.edu (Y.B. Guo).

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2008.09.022
 J. Sun, Y.B. Guo / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 40364042 4037

Table 1 Table 2
Milling conditions. Residual stress measurement parameters.

Experiment Cutting speed Feed f Radial DoC ae Axial DoC ap Measurement method Sin2
No. V (m/min) (mm/tooth) (mm) (mm)
Radiation Co K
1 50 0.08 4 1.5 Spot size (mm) 0.8
2 65 0.08 4 1.5 Voltage (kV) 40
3 80 0.08 4 1.5 Amperage (mA) 35
4 95 0.08 4 1.5 ( ) 10, 20, 30, 40, 0, 10, 20, 30, 40
5 110 0.08 4 1.5 2 ( ) 47.45
6 65 0.06 4 1.5
7 65 0.1 4 1.5
8 65 0.12 4 1.5
9 65 0.14 4 1.5
close to drilled surface. On the other hand, Ezugwu et al. (2007)
10 80 0.08 2 1.5 reported a softened surface by turning. Warren and Guo (2006)
11 80 0.08 3 1.5 have shown that the apparent paradox of surface softening was
12 80 0.08 5 1.5 caused by the edge effect on a measured surface during micro
13 80 0.08 6 1.5
indentation.

1.2. Microstructure changes 1.4. Residual stresses

Hughes et al. (2004) observed that phase deformation con- An early study by Zlatin and Field (1973) showed that an
sisted of deformed boundaries and elongation grains in turning abusive milling produced tensile residual stress in the machined
Ti6Al4V. Che-Haron and Jawaid (2005) related the phase layer, while a gentle milling produced compressive residual stress.
deformed layer with tool wear conditions. The deformed layer was Norihiko et al. (1983) reported that surface residual stress increased
very thin using a sharp tool while it is thick when the tool is nearly with the increase of cutting speed. The magnitudes of residual
worn out. Reissig et al. (2004) also observed subsurface deforma- stresses by dry cutting Ti6Al4V were also larger than those by
tion in drilling Ti6Al4V. Ezugwu et al. (2007) pointed out that in wet cutting. Yang et al. (2002) found that residual stress on the
ne cutting conditions, the shearing forces cannot cause severe ground Ti6Al4V surfaces have a larger scatter than that of the
plastic deformation in the subsurface regardless of conventional or face turned ones in a statistical sense.
high pressure cooling condition. The above literature review shows that the bulk study of
Besides phase deformation, microstructural changes such as the machining Ti6Al4V is limited to either turning or individual
absence of phase close to the hole surface have been shown in surface integrity factors in milling. A comprehensive study on
drilling Ti6Al4V (Canteroa et al., 2005). The SEM-EDS analysis milling induced surface integrity including anisotropic surface
showed that there exists an absence of phase close to the hole roughness, residual stress, microstructure alterations, microhard-
surface. Similar results were also reported by Li et al. (2007). The ness and the relationship between these factors is signicantly
phase transformation from phase to phase was induced by high lacking. In addition, there are many inconsistent and even contra-
temperatures resulted from the severe plastic deformations. dictory results in surface integrity. The objective of this study is to
ll in the knowledge gap and solve the impressing issues in milling
1.3. Subsurface microhardness Ti6Al4V.

Recent research (Che-Haron and Jawaid, 2005; Hughes et al., 2. Experimental setup and procedures
2004) have shown that a work hardened surface layer was up to
100 m and associated with higher hardness than the bulk mate- The work material is Ti6Al4V alloy (ASTM B265 grade 5 tita-
rial, while the subsurface hardness at about 200 m was less than nium). A series of down milling tests were performed on a CNC
the bulk material in the turned Ti6Al4V surface. Canteroa et al. milling center. The 12.7 mm diameter cutting tool is a 4-ute solid
(2005) also reported a 30% hardness increase in the deformed layer carbide end mill with TiAlN coating. The down milling tests were

Fig. 1. Residual stress measurement setup and directions.

4038 J. Sun, Y.B. Guo / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 40364042

A series of surface integrity characterizations were conducted.

Surface topography and roughness were measured by using an opti-
cal microscopy and a stylus proler. SEM images of the subsurface
microstructure were also taken. Surface and subsurface microhard-
ness (HK) was measured using a microhardness indenter with the
load of 25 g.
XRD-based residual stress measurement was used to measure
surface residual stress in the cutting, feed and shearing directions
in Fig. 1. The residual stress measurement parameters are listed
in Table 2. The XRD method is based on the fact that strain in
a crystalline material is induced as a consequence of mechanical
deformation, phase transformation, thermal expansion, etc. The
strain causes a change in the atomic spacing within the crystal
structure compared with the stress-free condition (Snoha, 1996;
Hauk, 1997). The change of inter-atomic spacing d causes a shift in
the diffracted X-ray peak position. By resolving the angular peak
shift and applying the Bragg law to quantify the d-spacing, residual
Fig. 2. Schematic of diffraction planes. stress on the machined surface can be calculated using the theory
of linear elasticity. Plane stress condition on the measured surface
was assumed, i.e., only residual normal stress 11 and 22 and
carried out with water-soluble cutting uid. The detail milling con- shear stress 12 exist but 33 perpendicular to the surface is zero.
ditions are listed in Table 1. Five levels of cutting speed, feed, and The common sin2 method was used in the determination of
radial DoC were selected, while the axial DoC was kept a constant residual stress. The sin2 method requires a number of XRD mea-
value. A sharp cutting edge was used at milling condition to ensure surement made at different tilts, Fig. 2 (Fitzpatrick et al., 2002). The
measurement repeatability and fair comparison. angular position of the diffracted peak was determined by the least-

Fig. 3. The effect of radial DoC (ae ) on surface topography (V, 80 m/min; f, 0.08 mm/tooth; ap = 1.5 mm).
 J. Sun, Y.B. Guo / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 40364042 4039

squares parabolic curve tting method to calculate d-spacing from in both directions is within 0.61.0 m, while roughness value is
the Bragg relation. A plot of d-spacing vs. sin2 was constructed. slightly larger in cutting direction than that in feed direction at rel-
The slope of a least-square line tted to the experimental data mul- atively high speeds. The feed effect on surface roughness value in
tiplied by the X-ray elastic constant (E/(1 + )) is proportional to the Fig. 5b shows that it almost linearly increases with the increased
stress on the plane of the surface. A linear d-spacing vs. sin2 plot feed in both directions. The variation range of surface roughness
indicates that the strain distribution is homogeneous within the X- value in both is 0.61.2 m and, therefore, is equivalent. As for the
ray irradiated volume and that the assumption of plane stress state effect of radial DoC in Fig. 5c, surface roughness value increases
is valid (Snoha, 1996; Fitzpatrick et al., 2002). with the increased radial DoC in trend which is consistent with the
observed phenomenon in Fig. 3. Surface becomes rougher in cutting
3. Surface integrity characterization direction at low radial DoCs, while it is smoother at relatively high
radial DoC. However, surface roughness value is also in the range of
Machining induced surface integrity can be generally described 0.61.2 m in both directions, which is equivalent to Fig. 5a and b.
by its topological, mechanical, metallurgical and chemical states. The sensitivity of surface roughness value to process parameters
In this study, surface integrity of the milled surfaces was sys- shows that the feed has the most signicant inuence, followed by
tematically characterized by surface roughness, residual stress, radial DoC, while cutting speed has the least inuence. Although a
microstructure and microhardness. The coherent characterizations certain variation of surface roughness value exists for the milling
provide a physical basis for the understanding of machined com- conditions under consideration, it is generally in the range of
ponent performance such as fatigue life and stress corrosion in 0.61.0 m.
service.
3.2. Residual stress
3.1. Surface roughness
The effect of cutting speed on residual stress at the surface in
The inuence of radial DoC on surface topography is shown in cutting and feed directions is shown in Fig. 6. For repeatability,
Fig. 3. It can be seen that the surface becomes rough when the radial three measurements at different locations for each surface were
DoC increases due to the increased overlap between cutting paths. made and the results were averaged to give the residual stress
It can also be induced that the increase of feed also results in more proles. In feed direction, compressive residual normal stress 11
surface roughness value. Fig. 4 shows the simulated surface pat- increases with cutting speed, reaches to the maximum 350 MPa
tern and the optical image of the experimental surface pattern. The around 80 m/min, then reduces with the increased cutting speed
simulated pattern based on process parameters and tool diameter in Fig. 6a. In cutting direction, residual normal stress 22 shows a
can characterize the basic features of the measured one. It should similar trend to 11 but with less magnitude of about 100 MPa at
be pointed out that the simulated surface pattern is only based on lower cutting speeds. Compared with the normal residual stresses,
tool path kinametics, while the surface material deformation was shear stress 12 shifts from tension to slight compression with the
not incorporated. Therefore, the difference between the simulated increased cutting speed. In addition, the magnitudes (100 MPa to
pattern and the experimental one is expected. However, the sim- 100 MPa) of shear residual stress are much smaller than those of
ulated pattern still shows the basic characteristics of the milled normal residual stress.
surface topography. The underlying mechanism for the residual stress variation is
As shown in Fig. 3, surface topography in the cutting and due to the combined effects of mechanical and thermal defor-
feed directions shows the anisotropic nature, which means sur- mations. The dominant mechanical deformation at all cutting
face roughness values will be different in the different directions. speeds tends to produce compressive residual stress. At low cut-
The measured arithmetic mean Ra in cutting and feed directions ting speeds, the degree of mechanical deformation is not as large as
is shown in Fig. 5. Surface roughness value in cutting direction, that at high cutting speeds. The magnitude of compressive resid-
Fig. 5a, initially increases with the cutting speed (up to 80 m/min) ual stress increases with cutting speeds. However, when cutting
and then decreases with the further increased cutting speed. In the speed increases over 80 m/min, the increased cutting temperature
feed direction, surface roughness value only slightly decreases with induces thermal deformation which tends to produce tensile resid-
the increased cutting speed. The range of surface roughness value ual stress and, therefore, reduce the magnitude of compressive

Fig. 4. The inuence of tool path on surface pattern (V, 80 m/min; f, 0.08 mm/tooth; ae = 3 mm; ap = 1.5 mm). (a) Cutting speed effect (f, 0.08 mm/tooth; ae = 4 mm; ap = 1.5 mm).
(b) Feed effect (V, 65 m/min; ae = 4 mm; ap = 1.5 mm). (c) Radial DoC effect (V, 80 m/min; f, 0.08 mm/tooth; ap = 1.5 mm).
4040 J. Sun, Y.B. Guo / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 40364042

residual stress. The highly nonlinear coupling of mechanical and

thermal deformations determines the characteristics of the residual
stress proles.
Fig. 6b shows that compressive residual normal stress generally
decreases with the feed. The variation of residual stress at the feed
of 0.08 mm/tooth does not affect the curve trends. The shear resid-
ual stress becomes more compressive when the feed increases. The
magnitude (0 to 100 MPa) of residual shear stress is much smaller
than the residual normal stresses, especially at relatively low feeds.

Fig. 6. The inuence of milling parameters on surface residual stress (V, 65 m/min;
ae = 4 mm; ap = 1.5 mm).

The variations of the residual stresses are expected due to the

non-uniform surface deformations as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The
surface asperities or roughness indicate that the material defor-
mations at these locations are different and, therefore, result in
a certain variation of residual stress. Since the X-ray spot on the
milled surface covers a certain area including different asperities,
the measured residual stress is an average residual stress of the
measured area. In addition, a number of error sources, such as the
method of curve tting to test data, measurement repeatability,
and various sources of uncertainty, contribute to the variation of
residual stress.

3.3. Subsurface microstructure

The cross-section views of subsurface microstructure are shown

in Fig. 7. At low cutting speeds (50 and 65 m/min), phase change
(deformation or volume change) in the near surface cannot be
observed. When the speed increases to 80 m/min, the deforma-
tion of phase in the near surface is clear. At 95 m/min, the
volume of phase becomes very small and almost disappears in
the near surface. Similarly, the volume of phase also seems to be
Fig. 5. The inuence of milling parameters on surface roughness. (a) Cutting speed smaller and deformation looks larger at the speed of 110 m/min
inuence (f, 0.08 mm/tooth; ae = 4 mm, ap = 1.5 mm). (b) Feed inuence. than those at low speeds of 50, 65 and 80 m/min. The varia-
 J. Sun, Y.B. Guo / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 40364042 4041

Fig. 7. Cross-section view of subsurface microstructure (f, 0.08 mm/tooth; ae = 4 mm; ap = 1.5 mm).

tion of near surface microstructure is caused by the combined

effects of mechanical and thermal loads in milling. The varia-
tion trend is qualitatively consistent with that of residual stress
in Fig. 6a. However, a quantitative relationship between the near
surface microstructure and residual stress needs a further study in
the future.
Since the surfaces were milled with the sharp cutting tool at
relatively low cutting speeds and well-lubricated conditions, cut-
ting temperatures are too low to induce any phase transformations
such as a white layer on the machined surfaces. It implies that no
thermal damage occurred at the milling conditions. Surface defor-
mation induced strain hardening should be the controlling factor
for the measured surface hardness in the next section.

3.4. Microhardness

Fig. 8 shows the surface and subsurface Knoop microhardness

distributions. Each microhardness prole represents the aver-
aged four sets of microhardness data. The microhardness proles Fig. 8. Microhardness distribution and variation in the subsurface (f, 0.08 mm/tooth;
are characterized by the higher surface hardness (13501500 HK) ae = 4 mm, ap = 1.5 mm).
4042 J. Sun, Y.B. Guo / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 40364042

and stable bulk hardness (800 HK). It means surface materials Acknowledgements
experienced signicant strain hardening in the range of 6880%
induced by surface deformation. Furthermore, the higher the cut- The authors would like to thank the assistance of Drs. Andrew
ting speed, the lower the surface hardness. This is because a Warren, Mark Barkey and Mark Weaver for preparing samples and
higher cutting speed generates higher temperatures which tend surface integrity characterization.
to induce thermal softening for countering the dominant strain
hardening. References
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