Burr formation and prediction in slot milling of titanium alloy

The existence of burrs may deteriorate the dimensional accuracy and surface finish, decrease the fit, and pose a challenge to the subsequent assembly during automatic production. For machining of titanium alloys, burrs have profound influence on the final performance and safety life of end products. Four different types of burrs (including Poisson, rollover, tear and cut-off burrs) had proposed in terms of their formation mechanism[1]. Tear burrs are also described as top side burrs in the micro milling process and its existence will cause poor machined quality. Many researchers have investigated the burr formation mechanisms and the influence of micro milling parameters on burrs. However, there is not many studies investigating the effect of up-milling and the down-milling, which simultaneously happen in a slot milling process and generate different heights/volumes of burrs on the 2 top side of the milled walls.In this research, the top side burrs’ formations at the milled walls (B4 & B8 in Fig.1) during slot milling of titanium alloys are investigated. The geometrical configurations of burrs are obtained by using white light interferometer. The machined-induced burr’s geometry are analysed and compared considering that both walls actually experienced different milling processes: down-milling and up-milling.