Effect of Porosity on Tool Wear During Micromachining of Additive Manufactured Titanium Alloy

Porosity is a major quality issue in additively manufactured (AM) materials due to improper selection of raw material or process parameters. While porosity is kept to a minimum for structural applications, parts with intentional (engineered) porosity find applications in prosthetics, sound dampeners & mufflers, catalytic converters, electrodes, heat exchangers, filters, etc. During post-processing of additive manufactured components using secondary machining to obtain required dimensional tolerance and/or surface quality, part porosity could lead to fluctuating cutting forces and reduced tool life. The machinability of the porous AM material is poor compared to the homogenous wrought material due to the intermittent cutting and anisotropy of AM materials. The cutting parameters for machining are generally optimized for continuous wrought material and are not applicable for porous AM material. Micromilling experiments were carried out on AM Ti6Al4V alloy with different porosity levels and cutting speed using a 1 mm diameter end mill. The progression of tool wear and associated mechanisms during micro-milling of additive manufactured Ti6Al4V samples with different porosity levels are experimentally investigated. Insights into tool-workpiece interaction during micro-machining are obtained in cases where pore size could be comparable to the cutting tool diameter. This research could lead to efficient hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing technologies with improved tool life and reduced costs.