Review Article

Developments in cutting tool

technology in improving machinability
of Ti6Al4V alloy: A review

Proc IMechE Part B:

J Engineering Manufacture
113
IMechE 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0954405416640176
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Abhineet Saini, BS Pabla and SS Dhami

Abstract
Ti6Al4V is the most widely used titanium alloy and is a demanding material in applications requiring high specific strength
and corrosion resistance, that is, aerospace, automobile and biomedical industries. However, the poor machinability of
this alloy, resulting from its low thermal conductivity, high hardness at elevated temperatures, high chemical reactivity
with the cutting tool and low elastic modulus, restricts its usage. As a result, the tool life in machining of Ti6Al4V is substantially less than conventional materials such as steel and aluminium. This work reviews the various techniques
employed in improving the machinability of Ti6Al4V alloy, from the perspective of cutting tool technology. The focus is
onto the parameters affecting tool life in machining of Ti6Al4V alloy with some trending techniques and their feasibility,
considering the economics to develop the best techno-economic method.

Keywords
Ti6Al4V, machining, tool life, carbide tools, surface treatment, cryogenics

Date received: 26 August 2015; accepted: 29 February 2016

Introduction
Titanium in its pure form is soft and has low mechanical strength and is used only for applications requiring
moderate mechanical properties, high corrosion resistance and good weldability.1 On the other hand, the
titanium alloys exhibit exceptional mechanical strength,
hardness, good corrosion resistance and low density
making them useful in applications requiring high specific strength and good corrosion resistance such as
aerospace and automotive.24 The titanium alloys, due
to their good biocompatibility, find application in biomedical implants.5 These materials replace steels and
aluminium alloys in many applications which usually
require weight and/or space saving provide increase in
system efficiency by raising the service temperature and
due to their high chemical inertness, and eliminate the
need of protective coatings that are used in steels.
Exceptional corrosion resistance of titanium is due to
its protective oxide film that results in its extensive
application in seawater, marine, chemical industries,
automobile industries, missile components, spacecraft,
hydrocarbon processing, power generation, nuclear
waste control, metal ore extraction, naval components,
armour plates, anodes, food processing, pharmaceuticals, sports equipment, biomedical implants and other
surgical equipment, and many other components.6,7

Titanium in its pure form exhibits variation in physical structure with transition from hexagonal close
packed (hcp; a) phase to body-centred cubic (bcc; b)
phase when heated to a temperature of 882 C. Thus, a
number of alloying elements are added to titanium for
a desired combination of properties. The alloying elements, such as Aluminium (Al) and Oxygen (O), when
added to titanium, results in increasing the phase
change temperature, and are thus called a stabilizers.
Tin (Sn) and Zirconium (Zr) are also added in small
amount to stabilize the a-phase and provide strength.
The elements such as Vanadium (V), Chromium (Cr),
Molybdenum (Mo) and other transition metals are
called b stabilizers as they decrease the phasetransformation temperature. Titanium alloys are thus
classified as a, a-b, b. The a-b alloys have intermediate properties of both a and b alloys and
includes near a and near b alloys depending on the
composition of stabilizing elements. The broad

Department of Mechanical Engineering, NITTTR Chandigarh, Chandigarh,

India
Corresponding author:
Abhineet Saini, Department of Mechanical Engineering, NITTTR
Chandigarh, Chandigarh 160019, India.
Email: abhineet.saini04@gmail.com

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Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture

Table 1. Properties and applications of different titanium alloys.6

Classification

Properties

Examples

Applications

a and near a alloys

These are less heat treatable

and weldable, having medium
strength, good creep strength
and good corrosion resistance
These are heat treatable,
formable, having medium to high
strength and good creep
strength

Ti-5Al-2.5Sn, Ti-8Al-1Mo-1V
and Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-Mo

They are also heat treatable

having good forming properties,
very high strength and low
ductility

Ti-35V-15Cr, Ti-40Mo, Ti-3Al8V-6Cr-4Mo-4Zr and Ti-13Nb13Zr

These are the most commonly

used near a alloys for aerospace
applications, that is, airframe and
engine parts
Used in turbine blades,
fasteners, airframes, automobile
engine parts, sports equipment,
biomedical implants, structural
forgings, pressure vessels,
chemical pumps, cryogenic
parts, etc.
High strength airframe castings
and forgings, springs, corrosion
resistance parts, orthopaedic
implants

a-b alloys

b alloys

Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-7Al-4Mo and Ti10V-2Fe-3Al

Table 2. Mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V alloy in its two metallurgical conditions.2527

Material

Tensile
strength (MPa)

Yield
strength
(MPa)

Elastic
modulus
(GPa)

Hardness
(HV)

Thermal
conductivity
(W/m K)

b-Transition
temperature
(K)

Ti6Al4V (annealed bar)

Ti6Al4V (forged bar)

895
1035

825
965

110

340
360

7.3
7.5

1268
1268

classification, properties and applications of different

titanium alloys are described in Table 1.
A behavioural analysis of machining various titanium alloys has been presented by researchers giving
the favourable and non-favourable characteristics of
these alloys.8,9 But, from the application viewpoint, the
most abundantly used alloy is the Ti6Al4V (a-b),
having a moderate combination of all the properties
such as high specific strength, good biocompatibility,
exceptional corrosion resistance and ability to retain
its mechanical properties at much elevated
temperatures.10,11

Issues in Ti6Al4V machining

Although the desire to manufacture a near to net shape
product has been the ideology driving the advances in
manufacturing technology, still the most common
metal removal processes including turning, milling and
drilling12 are essential production processes for fabricating and shaping the products to required shapes and
dimensional accuracies.13 However, unlike conventional materials such as steel and aluminium, the
machining of titanium alloys is difficult and the reasons
for this poor machinability include its low thermal conductivity, low elastic modulus, high hot hardness and
high chemical reactivity with cutting tools. These factors result in degraded tool life as a result of rapid tool
wear, low material removal rate and poor surface finish
of the machined parts.1416 As Ti6Al4V is considered

the most important alloy of titanium family due to its

versatility in applications, maximum developments
concerning improvements in machinability have been
reported for this alloy. These include optimizing the
cutting parameters,12,17 chip morphology study,1820
vibration and forces in toolworkpiece interaction,15,21
cryogenic machining/treatment22 and use of variable
pressure coolant.23,24 The article mainly focuses on the
improvements in the cutting tool technology considering the aspects of type of suitable tools and pre/posttreatment on tools which are best suited in machining
Ti6Al4V alloy. The authors have tried to conclude the
most appropriate measures for bringing a balance
between performance and economics of manufacturing
techniques. To understand the reason for difficulty in
machinability, comparison of mechanical properties of
Ti6Al4V alloy with other conventional materials is
presented.

Thermal conductivity
The thermal conductivity of pure titanium is 21 W/m K
for all temperatures, but varies for titanium alloy from
5.5 to 25.0 W/m K at temperatures ranging from 273 to
1073 K,12 which is very low as compared to steel for
which the value ranges from ;30 to 60 W/m K and for
aluminium ranges from ;170 to 240 W/m K for the
same temperature range.25 The Ti6Al4V alloy has a
thermal conductivity value ranging from 7.3 to 7.5 W/
m K, as given in Table 2. This lower value of thermal

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Saini et al.

Figure 1. Effect of temperature on properties of Ti6Al4V alloy: (a) thermal conductivity (k), (b) hardness (HV), (c) elastic modulus
(E) and (d) ultimate tensile strength.2932

conductivity results in heat accumulation at tool tip,

thus resulting in early tool failure. Although a slightly
higher value of thermal conductivity of forged bars
suggests more heat dissipation from Ti6Al4V workpiece during machining, the properties such as hardness
and tensile strength contradict the choice as discussed
later.

Chemical reactivity
The embrittlement in Ti6Al4V is caused due to its reaction with hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen to form
halides, oxides and nitrides.26,27 Furthermore, the
decrease in fatigue strength of workpiece material is
caused due to surface hardness resulting from internal
diffusion of oxygen and nitrogen.24,27 The chipping and
galling of workpiece surface due to its high reactivity
with cutting tool results in increased tool wear as well
as poor surface finishing.

Elastic modulus
The low value of elastic modulus, as given in Table 2, is
not desirable in machining as it results in slenderness
from compression exerted by cutting tool and leads to
chatter and tolerance problems.25

Work hardening
The work hardening of Ti6Al4V alloy results in
increase in shearing angle due to absence of built-up
edge (BUE) in front of the cutting tool. This in turn
generates a small contact area, between chip and tool
face, due to thin chip generation, resulting in high
stress concentration and bearing loads. This stress concentration as well as heat generation due to friction
between the chip and tool leads to high heat accumulation at small area of cutting tool resulting in large

crater wear near the cutting edge and ultimately tool

failure.27,28

Hardness and strength

The high temperature strength and hardness of this
alloy lead to higher cutting forces resulting in reduced
tool life. Also the high value of dynamic shear strength
during cutting generates tool notching resulting from
abrasive saw-tooth edges. However, the annealed
Ti6Al4V alloy is easier to machine, from Table 2, as a
lower value of tensile strength, yield strength and hardness is desirable for easy machining because of lesser
forces and reduced power consumption. Thus, the
choice of workpiece is cost largely and process oriented.

Effect of temperature on properties of Ti6Al4V alloy

The temperature has a significant effect on properties
of Ti6Al4V alloy as shown in Figure 1(a)(d). While
the effect of increase in thermal conductivity (k), Figure
1(a), is desirable as it improves the rate of heat dissipation from the tool cutting edge.30 Also, the decrease in
hardness (HV), Figure 1(b), as well as ultimate tensile
strength (UTS), Figure 1(d), are beneficial as the softer
material is easy to cut, thus decreasing the magnitude
of cutting forces.31,32 The only undesired property with
increased temperature is the decrease in elastic modulus
(E), Figure 1(c), as it results in more workpiece deflection during cutting which increases vibration and chatter and results in poor surface finish and dimensional
inaccuracies.25

Cutting parameters influencing machining

of Ti6Al4V
Although the machining of a particular material is
influenced by number of factors including physical

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Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture

properties of the material and cutting tool as well as

cutting conditions, thus making it difficult to predict
and control them for improvements. However, the most
influencing parameters resulting in dynamic forces and
hence affect the machinability of a material including
user-defined variables such as cutting speed, feed rate
and depth of cut resulting in effects in the form of cutting temperature, type of chip generated, material surface integrity, machining power consumption and tool
wear. Thus, these independent cutting parameters influence the dynamics of machining resulting in variable
performance alterations. The influence of such cutting
parameters and their effect on tool life, one of the indicative performance parameter in Ti6Al4V alloy
machining, are discussed. The tool life is thus considered to be an important performance parameter in
deciding for quality of machinability of Ti6Al4V alloy.
The increase in cutting speed reduces the cutting forces
for dry machining of Ti6Al4V alloy resulting from
reduction in friction and increased strain rate leading to
a more stable process. At higher cutting speeds, flank
wear growth is significant due to more friction at interface and change in chip flow angle leading to increased
BUE formation.33 For high-speed machining, the
coated carbides result in achieving very high cutting
speeds and withstanding high dynamic forces and temperatures.3436 For higher feed rates, the increased chip
segmentation results in lower dynamic force frequency.
Thus, it is suggested to use larger feed rates for high
cutting speeds to eliminate low-frequency vibrations.
The lower chip stiffness, resulting from low elastic modulus and high tool tip temperature, is observed at lower
feed rates that cause fluctuations in cutting force. These
could be eliminated either by increasing feed rate or
changing the cutting angle.35,36 Results of dry machining of Ti6Al4V alloy have shown that for depth of cut
up to 0.8 mm, the fluctuations in force as well as vibration amplitude increase linearly and then decrease. No
considerable change in frequency is noticeable. This
jump in vibrations for machining is probably caused by
friction phenomenon and low elastic modulus compared to that of steel.35,37 The frictional coefficients
give an indication of friction between tool and workpiece at any instance of time. These are found to
decrease significantly with lubricant use. Minimum
quantity cooling lubrication (MQCL) using combination of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) and high
pressure air as coolant is recommended in low to moderate cutting speeds38 while the use of solid lubricants,
coated tools and LN2 are found to perform significantly better in high-speed machining.39,40 The various
wear phenomena are seen in tools resulting from type,
location, treatment and configuration of cutting tool.
The abrupt chipping of the cutting tool is noted in face
milling even at flank wear values as low as 0.018 mm.
The reason is seen to be tool embrittlement due to carbon depletion from tool edge by moving chip resulting
from oxidation.36,41,42 Also, the high-speed dry machining of Ti6Al4V alloy results in serrated chips and the

degree of serration increases with increasing speeds.

The frequency of fluctuations in cutting force is found
to be proportional to chip segmentation as well as rake
angle. Thus, weaker degrees of segmentation and lower
rake angles are preferred.34,43

Tool life improvement in Ti6Al4V

machining
A number of measures to improve the tool life in
machining of Ti6Al4V alloy have been reported in the
past. The cutting tool life has been considered as a governing parameter in improving machinability and economics in Ti6Al4V machining. These techniques follow
various improvements in the properties of the Ti6Al4V
alloy as well as cutting tool such that the life of the cutting tool is improved. These improvements in properties are incorporated directly or indirectly considering
its effect on workpiece or cutting tool. Different techniques employed for improving tool life in machining
of Ti6Al4V alloy are discussed.

Surface treatment
The challenges such as increased thermal conductivity,
hardness and chemical inertness can be overcome by
the use of surface coatings on conventional cutting
tools in machining. Different techniques such as physical vapour deposition (PVD), chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and electro co-deposition have been
employed for desirable coatings. Although the PVD
technique provides the maximum strength and adhesion, the electro co-deposition provides the maximum
control, accuracy and ease in coatings. Moreover, the
use of nanocomposite coatings and multi-layered coatings has resulted in improved performance of cutting
tools while machining titanium alloys.4451

Cryogenic treatment
The deep and shallow cryogenic treatment of cutting
tools at temperatures as low as 2190 C and 280 C,
respectively, for 2440 h has shown substantial
improvement in performance. The treatment is also utilized before and after the surface coatings and has
resulted in increasing adhesion and life of cutting
tool.47,5266

Cryogenic machining
The most recent and effective technique utilized in
machining of Ti6Al4V is the use of cryogenic machining in which the coolant used is in the form of liquid
nitrogen injected at the point of actual cutting, thus dissipating high heat levels at the point of cutting. This
technology, although expensive for small scale, has
resulted in achieving twice the cutting speeds, 30%
increase in feed rate and tool life increase by up to
60%. Liquid nitrogen is also seen as a preferred coolant

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Saini et al.

for its clean, non-toxic and environment friendly behaviour.22,34,6772

Coolant density control

The use of various cooling techniques such as flooded
cooling, mist cooling (MQL) accompanied with specially designed tool holders to inject the coolants at
place of actual cutting, to dissipate heat effectively, has
resulted in improved tool life. The use of vegetable oils
is suggested to be a preferred choice in place of mineral
oils from cost and environment point of view. These
techniques are found to be effective at low and moderate cutting speeds representing a decrease in cutting
forces as well as temperatures.39,7375

Non-conventional machining
The techniques such as dry electrostatic cooling involving mixture of dry ionized gas and ozone injected in
cutting zone, laser-assisted machining and hybrid
machining have resulted in reduced tool wear and
increased tool life.76,77

New tooling technology

The use of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools has
resulted in improved tool life in machining of hard to
cut materials such as titanium. The PCD tools in specific are more chemically inert and capable of achieving
high cutting speeds in titanium machining, although the
chatter at higher speeds is pronounced. Also the high
cost of these tools is another limitation.44,47,62,64,78,79
The machining of titanium alloy is difficult as both
flank and crater wear are visible leading to early failure
of tool. Due to high chemical reactivity with the cutting
material, the chip formed is adhered to the tool leading
to chemical crater wear. The chip when peels off from
the next cut damages the tool. In titanium machining, a
chip is produced that travels over the rake face of the
tool at speeds that are two to three times higher than
machining steel. Thus, the formation of thin and
shorter chips results in narrow contact area leading to
concentration of heat and forces on smaller regions
and to flank wear.

Cutting tool for Ti6Al4V machining

The cutting tool comprising appropriate composition,
shape and treatment, if needed, to enhance properties
of machining hard to cut materials especially titanium
alloy Ti6Al4V is studied and understood. The most
commonly used carbide tools and high-speed steels find
their use in machining steel and aluminium, but for titanium machining, the conventional uncoated tools
results in a much reduced tool life due to high hardness,
chemical reactivity and high heat accumulation at the
tip of the cutting tool. The modified carbide tools are

found to be more appropriate for higher cutting speeds

in comparison to steels tools.80 Thus, the use of more
appropriate material composition for base tool as well
as coatings on tool surface using PVD, CVD and electrochemical deposition techniques has proved to be
much advantageous in improving tool life of carbide
tools as earlier discussed. Although the use of PCD,81
pure diamond82 and cubic boron nitride (CBN) tools83
are suggested for high-speed machining of Ti6Al4V
alloys, for conventional machining the use of carbide
tools is recommended, for moderate to high-speed
machining with intermittent cutting, due to their much
lower costs.44 The state-of-the-art review of various performance tools and techniques suggested by researchers
in machining of Ti6Al4V alloy are presented. Hartung
et al.81 suggested the use of WC-Co cemented carbide
with 6 wt% of cobalt to WC with grain size not less
than 0.8 mm. They also mentioned the use of tool materials including alumina, CBNs, diamond and coated
WC tools. The Al2O3 was recorded to wear the most,
and only PCD tools wore less than WC-6%Co tools at
moderate speeds. Dearnley et al.84 worked on tool
materials from varied composition of WC, Co and
TiC + TaC + NbC,
alumina + zirconia + TiC,
SiAlON, CBN and recommended the crystalline cemented carbides, that is, WC + 6% Co with grain size
between 0.8 and 1.4 mm to be the most suitable for
machining titanium alloys. Santhanam et al.85 used
PVD techniques for coatings of TiN and B4C on WCCo substrate for high-speed machining and reported a
reduction in the tool wear to a value of 3.9 mm/min.
Jansson86 mentioned the application of B4C coatings
on WC substrate using CVD technique and reported a
better adhesion result for the same in comparison to
PVD technique. Olsson et al.87 mentioned the use of
multilayer coatings of B4C onto TiN-coated WC substrates using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique for better coating adhesion
and lesser tool wear. Narutaki et al.82 found TiN-, TiCand Al2O3-coated carbide tools as well as CBN tools
unsuitable for machining Ti6Al4V, whereas natural diamond was recommended over PCD and K10 tools.
Similar tool life was reported for both PCD and K10
tools. Polini and Turchetta88 recommended the use of
single-layered TiAlN-coated carbide tools over multilayered and TiAl-coated carbides during end milling.
Cherukuri and Molian89 commented on increased performance of TiAlN-PVD coated and AlMgB14
20%TiB2pulsed laser deposition (PLD)-coated carbide
inserts in comparison to uncoated carbide tools.
Fitzsimmons and Sarin90 suggested the decrease in
flank wear in case of SiAlON tools and further reduction in crater wear by utilizing WC/Co composite coatings. Nabhani91 found maximum tool life in case of
PCD tools which were followed by CBN tools and minimum in case of multi-layered carbide tools. Ezugwu
et al.83 commented on better tool life and surface
roughness of uncoated carbide tools in comparison
to CBN tools at feed rate = 0.15 mm/rev, depth of

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Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture

cut = 0.5 mm and cutting speed = 150 m/min. The

cause of reduced tool life in CBN tools is due to greater
notch wear. Wang and Ezugwu92 suggested better tool
life of uncoated K20 inserts in comparison to P grade
inserts. Also, the tool life of single layer coated tools
was found better at higher feed rates of 0.25 mm/rev
while the multi-coated tools performed better at low
feed rate of 0.13 mm/rev. Ezugwu et al.93 reported better tool life in case of TiN/TiCN/TiN multilayer coated
inserts in comparison to TiN-coated inserts, at feed
rates of 0.13 and 0.25 mm/rev. Kishawy et al.94 demonstrated higher tool life of uncoated rotary carbide
inserts than coated rotary inserts as well as uncoated
fixed tools. Corduan et al.95 recommended PCD inserts
for high-speed machining with speeds up to 150 m/min,
TiB2 inserts for intermediate cutting speeds up to
100 m/min and CBN tools for lower cutting speeds preferably for finishing cuts. Bhaumik et al.79 showed
almost eight times increase in tool life for wurtzite
boron nitride (wBN)-cBN composite tools at 80 min to
only 12 min for K20 carbides. They also reported superior surface roughness Ra = 0.57 for wBN-cBN composite tools in comparison to roughness value Ra = 1.42
for K20 tools. Amin et al.7 recommended PCD inserts
for high-speed machining, at Vc = 120160 m/min, for
better tool life as well as surface integrity in comparison
to uncoated inserts which were found good for only low
cutting speeds of Vc = 4080 m/min. Lopez de lacalle
et al.96 considered uncoated as well as coated carbide
tools with TiCN and CrN coatings for low cutting
speeds. The uncoated carbide insert developed maximum flank wear followed by CrN-coated inserts and
minimum for TiCN-coated carbide inserts. Flank as
well as notch wear was visible in all the cases at cutting
speeds up to Vc = 50 m/min. Che Haron et al.97 concluded that multi-coated tools performed better than
single-coated tools at high speed cutting with higher
feed rate as well as depth of cut considering two types
of cutting tools. Uncoated tools were also tested and
were found suitable for less demanding applications.
Ginting and Nouari98 considered higher cutting speeds
up to 150 m/min and showed improved performance of
P grade carbide inserts in ball end milling of Ti-6242S
alloy. These tools were found to perform better at lower
cutting speeds and feed rates. Zareena et al.99 compared
bCBN and PCD tools with CBN tools and found maximum tool life for bCBN tools followed by PCD tools
and minimum for CBN tools at higher cutting speeds
up to 350 m/min, feed rate = 0.05 mm/tooth and depth
of cut = 0.05 mm.
To analyse the choice and effect of different coating
materials onto the tool substrate, one needs to understand the different properties that the tool and the
workpiece, that is, Ti6Al4V lack for efficient machining. The influential parameters responsible for poor
machining of Ti6Al4V, as discussed earlier, are its poor
thermal conductivity, high chemical reactivity with
workpiece and low elastic modulus. The appropriate
coating for tool machining this alloy could be attributed

to one having a moderate value of thermal conductivity, low chemical reactivity with this alloy and imparting improved mechanical strength and hardness to tool.
With the ever-increasing need for high productivity in
the industry, high-speed machining is the requirement
of the hour for all kinds of products. Although most of
the machining needs in industry now a days are fulfilled
by coated tools, as desired properties could be incorporated through coatings, the appropriate coating for
machining titanium-based alloys is still need to be
implemented. From the research so far, it is clear that
the use of ceramics, diamond tools and CBNs is not
suitable for titanium machining as they are chemically
reactive.44 Although the use of uncoated carbide tools
is limited to low-speed machining, an appropriate coating onto carbide tools is considered more feasible and
economical. The suggested tool configuration for tungsten carbide (WC) cermets for optimal tool life, while
machining at low and moderate speeds, is with 6%
cobalt by weight as binder and an average grain size
between 0.8 and 1.4 mm.84 The higher content of cobalt
was found to increase plastic deformation of the cutting
edge while lower content increased notch wear. Also,
the finer WC grains were found to increase hardness
and resistance to plastic deformation but resulted in
lower resistance to crater wear. Contrary, the larger
grain size resulted in improved crater wear resistance
while compromising in lower attrition wear and
decreased plastic deformation of cutting edge. Thus, a
moderate value of grain size of 0.81.4 mm is found to
optimize both the parameters. Negative rake angles
were preferred over positive rake angle for offering better edge security.
In case of high-speed machining of Ti6Al4V alloy,
work hardening and high heat generation become critical factors in deteriorating tool life as shown in
Figure 2. Also, the degree of strain hardening is much
higher compared to low/medium carbon steels and aluminium alloys, equivalent to high carbon steels and still
lower than stainless steels and nickel alloys. Thus, the
issue of low thermal conductivity is most responsible

Figure 2. Increase in cutting temperature with cutting speed

for titanium and steel alloys.100

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Saini et al.

Figure 3. Comparison of thermal conductivities of various tool

materials to Ti6Al4V with increasing temperature.100105

for poor machinability of titanium alloys as almost

80% of heat generated is withheld at the tool tip and
only 20% is transferred to the chips.2 The appropriate
coating material should result in enhanced performance
of tool, in terms of properties listed below:42
1.

2.
3.
4.

5.

It should provide optimal thermal conductivity

and thermal expansivity to minimize thermal gradients and thermal shocks.
It should provide resistance to high stresses by
combining high hot hardness.
The coating should be chemically inert with
titanium.
It should exhibit high tensile, compressive and
shear strength to improve mechanical properties,
namely elastic modulus.
It should help withstand effects of early chip
separation through improved hardness, toughness
and fatigue resistance.

The above-described coatings for WC tools had suggested that both the TiN and Al2O3 coatings are unsuitable for machining Ti6Al4V.45 Rather TiAlN and
Ti3N coatings individually or in combination as multilayered or composite coatings have resulted in
enhanced tool life, as quoted by previous researchers.51,89 This could be attributed to the lower values of
thermal conductivities of these materials than the tool
material (WC) but slightly higher than the workpiece
(Ti6Al4V), thus creating a thermal barrier. It is suggested that ideally the materials with lesser values of
thermal conductivity than the Ti6Al4V alloy could
increase tool life much significantly. Thus, the materials
such as AlTiN, AlCrN and nano-sized boron nitride
(NbN) are expected to provide better results due to significantly low thermal conductivities as shown in
Figure 3. AlCrN is shown in Figure 3 to have decreasing trend of thermal conductivity with increasing temperature, thus making it more suitable as a coating

material than other nitrides such as TiAlN and

AlTiN.103,106
Moreover, the increased hardness and improved
mechanical properties make these coatings suitable for
machining Ti6Al4V. The comparison and suitability of
various coating materials with Ti6Al4V at room temperature are shown in Figure 4. Although the TiAlN is
the recommended coating material106 with TiN and
TiC coatings also showing prominent results in machinability of Ti6Al4V alloy, some other efficient coating
materials are represented in Figures 3 and 4, which
could be coated onto WC and cBN substrates. As discussed earlier, NbN is having the lowest thermal conductivity which is desirable, but their low hardness
could be improved by varying the ratio of Nb and N,
thus making it a promising coating material for titanium machining.44 Also AlCrN and AlTiN due to their
higher chemical inertness, which increases with increasing Al content, are found to be more suitable than
TiAlN coatings.106

Cryogenics for enhancing life of cutting

tools
It has already been recognized that the main reason for
the poor machinability of Ti6Al4V alloy is due to high
temperature building at tool tip resulting from its low
thermal conductivity and its high chemical reactivity
with the cutting tool resulting in deteriorated tool geometry. Although the use of different coatings have
proved to be promising in enhancing tool life, another
approach being utilized by researchers is the use of
cryogenics in both the direct and the indirect manner.
The use of cryogenic machining is found to be a revolutionary measure in machining hard to cut materials
especially titanium alloys at high cutting speeds.65,71
This approach brings about the utilization of cryogenic
coolants such as liquid nitrogen and liquid helium in
place of normal coolant used in machining, to be
directly injected at the point of cutting by utilizing specially designed coolant nozzles working separately or
incorporated within the tool holder. Furthermore, coolants such as liquid nitrogen and helium, due to their
inert nature, make cutting environment clean and chemically inert. It also enables low reactivity of tool with
workpiece.
Another application of cryogenics in machining is
seen in the form of cryogenic treatment of cutting tools
especially for WC tools. The cryogenic treatment or
cryoprocessing is the process of treating a material at
very low temperature for a desired time. The temperature may vary from 280 C to 2140 C for shallow
cryogenic treatment and 2140 C to 2196 C for deep
cryogenic treatment. The commonly used refrigerant
for shallow cryogenic treatment is dry ice, and liquid
nitrogen for deep cryogenic treatment. The materials
are also treated at much lower temperatures of the
range of 2269 C using liquid helium. The cryogenic

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Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture

Figure 4. Comparison of various properties of cutting tool with Ti6Al4V alloy at room temperature: (a) thermal conductivity
(W/m K), (b) hardness (HV), (c) Youngs modulus (GPa) and (d) melting point (C).100,102,104,105,107110,119

treatment could be termed as heat treatment at very

low temperatures which is followed by tempering where
the temperature of specimen is brought to ambient conditions in a controlled way for attaining desired properties. A typical cryogenic treatment process is shown in
Figure 5 where the specimen is first slowly cooled to a
temperature of approximately 80 K, which is the liquefaction temperature of nitrogen, at a cooling rate of
2 C/min3 C/min. The material is then withheld at
this temperature within the chamber for almost 24- to
40-h time period, called the soaking period.55 Then, the
specimen is removed from the liquid nitrogen chamber
and exposed to ambient air to allow warming either at
room temperature or within the chamber. This coolingdown cycle in gaseous nitrogen controls the

Figure 5. Temperature versus time graph for cryoprocessing of

specimen at 80 K.111

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Saini et al.

temperature accurately, thus avoiding thermal shocks

to the treated material.111,112
This brings upon microstructural changes in the
material by relieving stresses and enabling a more stable structure. The stability in microstructure further
leads to improved mechanical and thermal properties
of the cutting tool. This process has helped increasing
the tool life for both coated and uncoated carbide
tools, not only in machining of hard to cut materials
but also conventional materials.52 The use of cryogenic
treatment has also been utilized before and after the
surface coatings on tools and in both the cases it has
provided improvement in adhesion and stable microstructure, respectively,54,6062 thus improving the tool
life. Improved mechanical properties, namely hardness
as well as toughness are achievable after cryogenic
treatment of carbide tools. The increased hot hardness
values as well as improved thermal conductivities are
observed in deep cryogenic treatment of cemented carbides.54 The developments in the study of cryogenic
treatment on WC coated and uncoated tools have been
presented through a state-of-the-art review. Reddy
et al.60 summarized that the deep cryogenic treatment
resulted in increased toughness and hardness, thus
increasing hot hardness and reducing tool wear compared to untreated carbides. Thakur et al.113 observed
changes in microstructure of WC tools due to cobalt
densification resulting in uniform distribution of WC
particles, thus improving wear resistance. Yong et al.63
concluded an increase in tool life by almost 28.9% in
dry conditions and 38.6% with the use of cutting fluid
in deep cryogenically treated WC tools. They also suggested shorter machining times and wet machining for
further increasing tool life. Gill et al.64 found an
enhanced tool life in interrupted machining of cryogenically treated WC tools during turning operation.
Poomari et al.114 utilized treated TiAlN PVD-coated
WC tools and observed increased tool life at lower and
intermittent cutting speeds but degraded performance
as the speed increased. Ozbek et al.115 reported
increased hardness and improved microstructure,
namely relieved stresses in case of cryogenically treated
carbide tools. Gill et al.116 found increased adhesion
strength of TiAlN coating on pre-treated WC tools
with increased overall tool life. Kalsi et al.58 observed
that cryogenic treatment resulted in fineness, uniform
distribution and densification of cobalt binder that
resulted in firmness of WC tool providing better wear
resistance. Thamizhmanii et al.117 found an improved
surface integrity of workpiece at high cutting speeds
and low feed rate when using PVD-coated WC inserts.
Yong et al.118 observed a decrease in chipping and
flank wear and much improved performance at low
cutting speeds. Gill et al.54 reported substantial
improvement in wear resistance for both deep and shallow cryogenically treated WC tools due to refinement
in grains and crystal alignment of hard a-phase with
uniform distribution of b-phase. Thornton et al.59

noted an increase in hardness of WC tools at 9.2% and

reduction in the value of flank wear by 6%. The
increased BUE reduced abrasive wear but increased
stresses, thus resulting in sub-surface cracks. There was
no significant change in the value of crater wear.
Vadivel and Rudramoorthy61 suggested the crystallographic change of carbide with the presence of fine
h-phase for cryogenically treated carbide tools which
resulted in improved wear resistance. Strano et al.47
performed deep cryogenic treatment on TiAlN-coated
WC tools, thus reducing adhesion wear of tool rake
face at high cutting speeds.
Researchers have proved many advantages of deep
cryogenic treatment on WC tools including better performance for both interrupted and continuous machining mode using both dry and wet cutting conditions.65
A fewer limitations being the initial cost, time and postprocessing treatments including demagnetization and
controlled tempering for desired microstructure. But
once treated, it imparts better machining characteristics
to cutting tools for desired workpiece materials, thus
making it an essential part of production process of
these tools. The improvement is also seen for WC
coated as well as uncoated tools in high-speed machining of Ti6Al4V alloy. In case of interrupted machining,
the cryogenically treated WC tools were found to perform more consistently in comparison to continuous
machining process. For carbide turning inserts, better
tool life in terms of flank wear was reported for deep
cryogenically treated inserts in comparison to their
untreated counterparts.60 Moreover, researchers have
shown the ability of cryogenically treated WC tools to
resist chipping in milling as well as turning operations
in addition to reduced flank wear.63,118 Although it is
claimed to be advantageous in only low or medium cutting conditions, with maximum efficiency in intermittent cutting, merely no significant benefit is reported in
high-speed continuous machining where less time is
available for heat dissipation from the tool tip. Along
with the uncoated WC inserts, coated carbide inserts
have also shown an increased performance at high
speed cuttings. Poomari et al.114 observed improved
performance for PVD-coated TiAlN coatings on
WC tools at low and intermittent speeds. Gill et al.116
found improved adhesion strength of coatings on pretreated WC tools and Strano et al.47 mentioned reduced
adhesion wear for post-treated TiAlN-coated WC
tools.

Conclusion
A number of measures and techniques have been suggested by reviewers for improved machinability of
Ti6Al4V alloy. These manufacturing techniques have
developed substantially with the advances in technology. The most effective measures and techniques with
agreement to technical and economic factors are concluded as follows:

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10
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture

The most influential parameter for limiting the
machinability of Ti6Al4V is low thermal conductivity and high chemical reactivity with cutting
tool. The cutting tool in Ti6Al4V machining is
found to wear at both flank and crater equally at
high cutting speeds resulting from high heat accumulation at tool tip and adhesion with the serrated
chips, respectively. At lower cutting speeds, the
crater wear is found to cease due to absence of
high cutting temperatures at tool chip interface.
The WC tools with 6% cobalt as binder with grain
size between 0.8 and 1.4 mm are found to be the
most suitable. Although diamond inserts perform
better than CBN tools in respect of chemical inertness, WC tools due to their satisfactory performance at low and medium speeds as well as their
cost-effectiveness make them the choice for
machining titanium alloys.
Although, the reaction of Ti6Al4V workpiece with
WC cutting tool results in deteriorated tool life due
to the formation of carbides, the presence of
nitrides during machining are preferred for reduced
tool wear. Thus, coated WC tools are preferred for
high-speed machining of Ti6Al4V alloys, with
TiAlN, AlTiN, AlCrN, NbN and TiAlSiN coatings
suggested for improved tool life and increased wear
resistance. Considering the thermal conductivities
of coating materials, both higher as well as lower
thermally conductive coatings, than Ti6Al4V, are
found to improve tool life. Modified multilayer
coatings with high adhesion material as lower layer
and hard as well as tough material as upper layer
are suggested. Therefore, a number of contradictory theories prevail which need to be justified for
proper wear mechanism concerning various cutting
parameters. A more suitable coating needs to be
developed which could further reduce abrupt failure of tool.
Cryogenics as pre- and post-coating treatment
methods for improving tool life are suggested.
Cryogenic treatment of tool material before and
after coating has resulted in improved wear resistance and mechanical properties due to improved
microstructure and uniform grain distribution. In
case of WC tools, it has resulted in formation of
more stable microstructure, that is, the h-phase,
refinement in particle boundaries and improvement of thermal conductivity.
In cryogenic machining, the lubrication effect of
LN2 as well as rapid heat traverse is found to be
useful in increasing tool life. Contrary, some
researchers have quoted for increased cutting
forces and embrittlement of cutting edge leading to
early tool failure due to chipping as a result of
increased hardness. It is also suggested to have
improved coating adhesion for pre-cryogenic treatment and stable microstructure of coatings for
post-cryogenic treatment. Thus, it needs to be clarified for the optimum use of cryogenics for tool life

and cost-effectiveness concerning pre- or posttreatment of tools and whether to use cryogenic
treatment or cryogenic machining or both hand to
hand, as the latter is costlier but more effective.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest
with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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