Investigation of cooling and lubrication strategies for machining high-temperature alloys

Optimal and efficient machining of high-temperature alloys is one of the main goals set by the manufacturing technology today, taking into account the unique properties of these materials, the required performance and the process parameters. One of the most important parameters investigated and presented in this paper is the optimal cooling and lubrication strategy. The application of various hybrid cooling strategies such as high-pressure cooling, cryogenic cooling and aerosol dry lubrication offers the potential to extend profitability and energy efficiency as well as high performance and improved surface integrity. The paper introduces fundamental functions, cooling systems and relationships that characterize the efficient utilization on standard machine tools. Based on fundamental investigations conducted using high-temperature alloys with poor machinability such as Titanium alloy Ti6Al4V and Inconel 718, relevant influencing parameters are derived and optimization options are presented for the cooling strategies.