Experimental Study on Micro End-Milling Process of Ti-6AL-4V Using Nanofluid Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL)

This paper investigates the characteristics of micro end-milling process of titanium alloy (Ti-6AL-4V) using nanofluid minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). A series of micro end-milling experiments are conducted in the meso-scale machine tool system, and milling forces, burr formations, surface roughness, and tool wear are observed and analyzed according to varying feed per tooth and lubrication conditions. The experimental results show that MQL and nanofluid MQL with nanodiamond particles can be effective to reduce milling forces, burrs and surface roughness during micro end-milling of titanium alloy. In particular, it is demonstrated that smaller size of nanodiamond particles — 35 nm — can be more effective to decrease burrs and surface roughness in the case of nanofluid MQL micro end-milling.