Development of roadmaps for cost minimisation of titanium machining for aerospace applications

In order to fulfil the high demands of their later applications, products in aerospace industry are usually highly sophisticated with regards to their geometry and material choice. Despite difficulties in the manufacturing process chains the functionality of parts is put in the foreground. This paper discusses latest results of a large collaborative project aiming at systematic research towards an efficient utilisation of the High Performance Cutting (HPC) technology, focusing hereby on the machining of titanium alloys as the material holding the key to mass saving and ultimately emissions reduction. Using a number of demonstrators, representative for a certain class of aerospace structural components, as an experimental base, the impact of selected lubrication and cooling techniques, milling strategies and cutting tool materials on the tool wear phenomena was studied. An additional research aspect was the influence of 5-axis milling on the machining cycle. The machinability of components made from powder material was investigated too. In this way the targeted cost optimisation and lead time shortening can be modelled and practically achieved.