Cutting fluids play a significant role in the machining of titanium alloys due to its lubricating and cooling effects. This study was performed to clarify the specifications of a water-based cutting fluid required for titanium alloy machining and develop new cutting fluids that can achieve high performance machining of titanium alloys. A series of experiments focusing on the oil droplet behaviors at the tool/workpiece interface showed that the oil droplet diameter and the carbon number of oily additives have significant impacts on the lubricity of water-based cutting fluids. New water-based cutting fluids have been developed based on the above investigations, which successfully improve cutting performance in high-speed machining of Ti-6Al-4V.

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The grinding performance of small mounted electroplated diamond grinding wheels was evaluated to elucidate the effects of the ultraviolet (UV)-truing method on grinding wheels. The grinding wheels were precisely trued by the ultraviolet irradiation polishing method. After precision grinding of cemented carbide using various grinding wheels trued under different UV-truing times, the surface roughness and the grinding forces were evaluated. Good surface finish of 3.0 nmSa could be achieved by precision grinding using only 10-min UV-trued wheel. These observations indicated the effects of UV-truing on improvement of grinding performances. Long-term grinding using the 60-min UV-trued grinding wheel showed good and stable grinding performance. The powerful effects of the UV-truing method on the best possible long-term grinding wheels were confirmed. Microbubbles in the grinding fluid could achieve good surface roughness, refinement of the grinding chips, reduction of the grinding forces, and wheel loading

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Ultraviolet-irradiated precision polishing was applied to the ground flank face of commercial cutting tools to achieve advanced PCD cutting tools. PCD cutting tools with a smooth flank surface and sharpened cutting edge were finally obtained. The cutting edge radius of a sharpened PCD tool was about 87 nm as determined by 3D-SEM. The cutting performance of sharpened PCD cutting tools was investigated by turning tests of aluminum alloy (A5052) and high-silicon aluminum alloy (Al-17%Si, A390). The cutting results confirmed the improvement of surface roughness and calculated diffused reflection rate, and reduction of flank wear. As the flank wear was increased by sharpening of cutting tools in the cutting of high-silicon aluminum alloy, the formation technique of the chamfer with a negative rake angle by UV-polishing was newly developed. The formation of the chamfer could prevent flank wear caused by the impact with the primary Si hard particles.

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