Synergistic improvement of grinding performance in form grinding of titanium alloys using laser combinatorial surface texturing

Ti-6Al-4V has many applications in aerospace, medical devices, and other fields. However, the high hardness, high toughness, and low thermal conductivity of Ti-6Al-4V make it difficult to machine. In this paper, two ordinary textures and two combinatorial textures were designed on the surface of Ti-6Al-4V by laser ablation. Subsequently, form grinding experiments were conducted using a white corundum grinding wheel to compare the effects of untextured and different textures on the grinding performance of Ti-6Al-4V, including grinding force, surface morphology, surface roughness, edge morphology, and surface microhardness. The experimental results show that the grinding performance of workpieces with laser textures is all better than that of untextured workpieces. Among them, the combinatorial textured (DST1) workpieces showed the maximum reduction of tangential and normal forces by about 22 % and 29 %, respectively, the reduction of surface roughness by 20.1 %, and the increase of microhardness by 11.2 %. The results show that laser texturing of Ti-6Al-4V surfaces can improve grinding performance, enhance surface integrity, and realize efficient and low-damage machining.