A Chip Formation Study of the Micro-Cutting of Commercially Pure Titanium

In recent years, micro-cutting has been employed to obtain components that are more detailed and/or have great surface quality, regardless of dimensions, like dental implants. In the manufacturing of medical/dental components, titanium and its alloys are biomaterials of great notability. Like in conventional machining, sustainability is a delicate issue because it does not only depend on environmental aspects. One simple solution would be to perform dry machining. However, in the machining of difficult-to-cut materials, like titanium and its alloys, the use of cutting fluids is generally recommended to avoid the high temperature causing damage to the tool and/or machined surface. Concerned with the quality surface that is required for dental components, this work investigates the use of cutting fluid in the micro-cutting of commercially pure titanium. Orthogonal micro-cutting experiments were carried out under dry and wet conditions, using cutting fluid at room and cooled temperatures. To evaluate the lubri-cooling performance, cutting efforts, the friction coefficient, specific cutting energy, and chip formation analysis were compared. The outcomes indicated that, under the test conditions, the use of dry cutting and high feed levels had a positive effect on micro-cutting performance.