Ultrasonic-Vibration-Assisted Grinding of Titanium: Cutting Force Modeling With Design of Experiments

Titanium and its alloys (Ti) have wide applications in industry. However, since Ti is notorious for its poor machinability, their applications have been hindered by the high cost and low efficiency. Ultrasonic-vibration-assisted grinding (UVAG) is a hybrid machining process that combines the material removal mechanisms of diamond grinding and ultrasonic machining, and it is a cost-effective machining process for Ti. The relations between cutting force and input variables have been investigated and reported. But these relations have been studied by changing one variable at time. Therefore, the interactions between cutting force and input variables have not been revealed. In this paper, a two-level five-factor full factorial design is used to study the relations between cutting force and input variables based on a cutting force model for UVAG of Ti. The main effects of these variables, and two-factor interactions and three-factor interactions of these variables are also revealed.