Titanium Alloy Materials Ground Finish Techniques

Nowadays, most aeromotor parts use titanium alloy materials. The precision and roughness of fine finishing surface can be only met by ground finish. Due to physical and mechanical properties of titanium alloy materials, during ground finish, the workpieces' surface is prone to be injured. Currently, the problem is urgent. Therefore, how to choose the right grinding wheels has become a necessity.

Performance of Titanium Alloy 

According to Wikipedia, titanium alloys are metals that contain a mixture of titanium and other chemical elements. Such alloys have very high tensile strength and toughness (even at extreme temperatures). They are light in weight, have extraordinary corrosion resistance and the ability to withstand extreme temperatures. However, the high cost of both raw materials and processing limit their use to military applications, aircraft, spacecraft, medical devices, highly stressed components such as connecting rods on expensive sports cars and some premium sports equipment and consumer electronics.

Titanium alloy contains oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and impurity elements, such as and iron, which react and improve the tensile strength of titanium alloy. Under certain temperature, titanium will produce a oxide protective film, and the surface become hardened. Thus the grinding wheels are prone to be blocked.

Choice of Grinding Wheels 

The ground finish of titanium alloy requires low temperature and less abrasion of grinding wheels. Conventional grinding wheels are composed of abrasives, bonding agents and gas holes. The function of abrasives is to grind the processed materials to required surface. Bonding agents bond abrasives together to from certain shapes and hardness. Gas holes function to cool down and lubricate. Conventional abrasives include fused alumina (aluminum oxide) and silicon carbide. Titanium alloy ground finish uses silicon carbide grinding wheels.

Choice of Bonding Agents

There are two types of bonding agents – resin bonding agents and ceramic bonding agents. Both have different performances and advantages. The former has a high tensile strength, good elasticity, and can withstand impact. But resin bonding agents are poor in thermal stability and corrosion. The latter has good chemical stability, is waterproof, can withstand heat and corrosion, and the grinding performance can be kept for a longer time. The production efficiency is high. But ceramic bonding agents can not bear strong impact. Ceramic bonding agent grinding wheels are suitable for titanium alloy ground finish.

Choice of Grit Size

Abrasives of titanium alloy ground finish usually adopts 36# to 80# grit size.

Author: Liwei Chu
Copyright: iAbrasive.com--Abrasives & Diamond Tools Market