ORIGINAL ARTICLE Performance evaluation of novel chamfered inserts in high-feed turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy Sarmad Ali Khan 1 & Muhammad Zubair Afzal 1,2 & Muhammad Qaiser Saleem 1 & Khalid Hussain Hashmi 3 & Zakria Ghulam 3 Received: 3 March 2018 /Accepted: 2 May 2018 # Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The present work aims to investigate the performance of recently designed chamfered inserts in high-feed turning of Ti-6Al-4V which is considered as the mainstream alloy for aerospace applications. So far, extensive experimental data has been published while turning this alloy using square-, round-, and rhombic-shaped inserts despite certain limitations associated with each insert design. Recently, a novel chamfer insert has been developed with an intention of combining the geometric benefits of aforemen- tioned individual inserts into a single tool. The present work evaluates wear behavior and machining performance of this newly designed insert while turning Ti-6Al-4V without coolant under constant depth of cut of 1 mm at four levels of feed rate (0.14, 0.337, 0.45, 0.562 mm/rev) and three levels of cutting speed (55, 85, 110 m/min). For output responses of tool life and workpiece surface roughness, the novel chamfer inserts not only outperformed the conventional shaped tooling but more interestingly, they were seen to compete with much expensive PCD inserts. Flank wear was observed as the principle wear mode without any signs of crater formation. Chipping was evident at the lowest cutting speed (55 m/min) and low feed rate combinations (0.14 and 0.337 mm/rev). On the other hand, fracture was encountered when operated either at an intermediate cutting speed (85 m/min) with highest feed rate (0.562 mm/rev) or highest cutting speed (110 m/min) and medium to high feed rates (values ranging from 0.337 to 0.562 mm/rev). Workpiece surface roughness (Ra) values were within the range of 0.51 to 3.91 μm over the investigated regime of operating parameters. Strain-hardened layer that deepened up to 150 μm from the machined surface was observed without any microstructural damage. Keywords Ti-6Al-4V . High feed . Turning . Chamfered inserts . Tool wear 1 Introduction Titanium alloys are high-strength alloys with distinct mechan- ical, physical, and chemical properties such as high strength- to-weight ratio, good fatigue strength, superior corrosion re- sistance, and ability to operate at high temperature [1, 2]. They find extensive applications in aerospace, automotive, military, and biomedical industrial sectors [3, 4]. Among other things, these alloys also exhibit high galvanic compatibility with car- bon and for this reason, they are easily employable with car- bon fiber-reinforced composites (CFRPs) (another material with widespread aerospace applications). Despite the afore- mentioned favorable traits, the alloys are however difficult to cut owing to low thermal conductivity, chemical affinity with tool materials (at elevated temperatures), and low young’ s modulus. This results into larger machining time and shorter tool life [5, 6]. Different classes of cutting tools namely carbides, ce- ramics, and ultra-hard tools have been employed for machin- ing of titanium alloys; however, carbides are seen to provide a good balance between hardness and toughness. Other tool classifications, despite showing some promising results, are somewhat limited by relatively poor fracture toughness and high cost in general [7, 8]. The research reported for the use of carbide tools for machining of titanium alloys indicate that different cutting conditions and coatings have been evaluated for the purpose. * Sarmad Ali Khan drsarmad.ali.khan@gmail.com 1 Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, NFC Institute of Engineering and Fertilizer Research, Faisalabad, Pakistan 3 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-018-2101-z