Integrated optimization of titanium machining

Machining of titanium for aerospace applications has gained significant importance in recent years since the material choice for fuselage or wing structures of new airliners shifted from aluminium to carbon fibre reinforces composites [1]. Titanium alloys show attractive compatibility to CFRPs in terms of Young's modulus, linear coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and corrosion behaviour. A consortium of Austrian and German companies consisting of industries and research companies has set a target of 500% optimization concerning economics. The means to reach this goal comprise fast prototyping of new tool concepts, machining trials in laboratory and industrial environment, material characterization and analysis with modern facilities, tribological testing as well as 2D & 3D Finite Element methods based process simulation. The numerical approach is of special interest in this paper since it has proved to supply beneficial insight into the thermo-mechanics of machining. The results include transient data concerning strains, stresses, temperature as well as wear.