Machining titanium economically

Machining titanium is fundamentally different from machining cast iron or steel. For economic results, tool technology and the process must be optimally designed. With its holistic understanding of the overall correlations when machining titanium, MAPAL is able to identify the optimum combination of precision and cost-effectiveness.

The material properties of titanium are valued in many fields such as aerospace, the automotive industry and medical technology. However, the material is notoriously difficult to machine. This is because of its extremely low thermal conductivity. By way of comparison, with steel machining, ten percent of the temperature remains in the workpiece, 15 percent causes stress on the cutting tool and by far the largest proportion, 75 percent of the heat, is transferred into the chips and removed with them. Titanium is completely different. In this case, the chips only absorb 25 percent of the heat. The lion’s share of 60 percent goes into the tool and causes a high thermal load on the cutting edge or the cutting material. This leads to considerably shorter tool lives. In this way, the cutting material costs become the focus of attention.

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