An Experimental Analysis of Ultrasonic Vibration Assisted Tapping of Ti-6Al-4V

Tapping is an important process in assembly of aircraft structures because on an average one millions of tapped holes are made on an aircraft structure. However, sudden breakage of the tap is the most undesirable event frequently encountered during the tapping process. In particular, this can mostly occur when small diameter internal threads are made in a ‘difficult-to-cut’ material like titanium. For this reason, it has been a topic of industrial interest in the manufacturing sector for many years. The ultrasonic vibrations assisted tapping (UVAT) is a novel manufacturing technology, where ultrasonic vibrations are provided to the work piece in the axial direction. The present work is a comprehensive study involving experimental characterization. The experimentation shows that UVAT reduces the torque during tapping as compared to that of in conventional process. There is a 19.1% reduction in torque and about 20.3% reduction in cutting temperature in UVAT over that of in CT. The experimental analysis of UVAT process also shows that the superior surface and better machinability in UVAT over that of in CT.