Abstract
The potential and advantages revealed by the application of 3D manufacturing techniques such as Electron Beam Melting (EBM) in the production of medical devices such as orthopaedic implants are increasing manly in custom made devices. However, the use of milling and turning operations are indispensable on surfaces where surface finish and dimensional accuracy have more demanding requirements. This work aims to evaluate the machinability of titanium alloy test samples submitted to turning operations, to obtain the geometry of a functional cone of the modular component of the hip prosthesis. The differences in cutting forces and surface finish obtained in the turning tests are compared between a wrought Ti-6Al-4V test sample and three obtained by EBM with different thicknesses. To perform the tests, a constant cutting speed of 60m/min was used, feed of 0.1 and 0.2mm/rev and ap of 0.15mm. The cutting forces were measured for each test, also the roughness was measured in the form of Ra, Rt and RzD in each test sample. From the results obtained, EBM test samples presented higher roughness values and lower resulting cutting forces. In both materials, the effect of feed rate is visible. When machining a cone, the passive force and the cutting force become the most influential forces. Generally, when the feed rate value was doubled, the resulting machining forces value increased up to about 50% for both types of materials and the Ra value to approximately 200%. The EBM technology as used form medical devices allow good quality surfaces as the wrought titanium alloy.
Machinability evaluation of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V obtained by EBM for functional part at medical application
