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Ti2AlNb intermetallic alloy is a relatively newly developed high-temperature-resistant structural material, which is expected to replace nickel-based super alloys for thermally and mechanically stressed components in aeronautic and automotive engines due to its excellent mechanical properties and high strength retention at elevated temperature. The aim of this work is to present a fast and reliable methodology of inverse identification of constitutive model parameters directly from cutting experiments. FE-machining simulations implemented with a modified Johnson-Cook (TANH) constitutive model are performed to establish the robust link between observables and constitutive parameters. A series of orthogonal cutting experiments with varied cutting parameters is carried out to allow an exact comparison to the 2D FE-simulations. A cooperative particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed and implemented into the Matlab programs to identify the enormous constitutive parameters. Results show that the simulation observables (i.e., cutting forces, chip morphologies, cutting temperature) implemented with the identified optimal material constants have high consistency with those obtained from experiments, which illustrates that the FE-machining models using the identified parameters obtained from the proposed methodology could be predicted in a close agreement to the experiments. Considering the wide range of the applied unknown parameters number, the proposed inverse methodology of identifying constitutive equations shows excellent prospect, and it can be used for other newly developed metal materials.

In order to prepare monolayer brazed superabrasive wheels, the polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) grains were brazed to AISI 1045 steel matrix with Ag–Cu–Ti filler alloy using the high-frequency induction heating technique. The compressive strengths of brazed grains were measured. Morphology, chemical composition and phase component of the brazing resultant around PCBN grain were also characterized. The results show that the maximum compressive strength of brazed grains is obtained in the case of brazing temperature of 965 °C, which does not decrease the original grain strength. Strong joining between Ag–Cu–Ti alloy and PCBN grains is dependent on the brazing resultants, such as TiB2, TiN and AlTi3, the formation mechanism of which is also discussed. Under the given experimental conditions, the optimum heating parameters were determined to be current magnitude of 24 A and scanning speed of 0.5 mm/s. Finally, the brazing-induced residual tensile stress, which has a great influence on the grain fracture behavior in grinding, was determined through finite element analysis.

Titanium alloys are widely used in aeronautics that demand a good combination of high strength, good corrosion resistance and low mass. The mechanical properties lead to challenges in machining operations such as high process temperature as well as rapidly increasing tool wear. The conventional tool materials are not able to maintain their hardness and other mechanical properties at higher cutting temperatures encountered in high speed machining. In this work, the new material tools, which are polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools, are used in high-speed milling of Ti-6.5Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V (TA15) alloy. The performance and wear mechanism of the tools are investigated. Compared to PCBN tool, PCD tool has a much longer tool life, especially at higher cutting speeds. Analyses based on the SEM and EDX suggest that attrition, adhesion and diffusion are the main wear mechanisms of PCD and PCBN tools in high-speed milling of TA15. Oxidation wear is also observed at PCBN tool/workpiece interface. Roughness, defects, micro-hardness and microstructure of the machined surface are investigated. The recorded surface roughness values with PCD/PCBN tools are bellow 0.3 μm at initial and steady cutting stage. Micro-hardness analysis shows that the machined surface hardening depth with PCD and PCBN tools is small. There is no evidence of sub-surface defects with PCD and PCBN tools. It is concluded that for TA15 alloy, high-speed milling can be carried out with PCD/PCBN tools.

The technique of creep feed grinding is most suitable for geometrical shaping, and therefore has been expected to improve effectively material removal rate and surface quality of components with complex profile. This article studies experimentally the effects of process parameters (i.e. wheel speed, workpiece speed and depth of cut) on the grindability and surface integrity of cast nickel-based superalloys, i.e. K424, during creep feed grinding with brazed cubic boron nitride (CBN) abrasive wheels. Some important factors, such as grinding force and temperature, specific grinding energy, size stability, surface topography, microhardness and microstructure alteration of the sub-surface, residual stresses, are investigated in detail. The results show that during creep feed grinding with brazed CBN wheels, low grinding temperature at about 100 °C is obtained though the specific grinding energy of nickel-based superalloys is high up to 200-300 J/mm3. A combination of wheel speed 22.5 m/s, workpiece speed 0.1 m/min, depth of cut 0.2 mm accomplishes the straight grooves with the expected dimensional accuracy. Moreover, the compressive residual stresses are formed in the burn-free and crack-free ground surface.