LAUSR

ABSTRACT Ti-6Al-4V is widely used in aerospace, biomedical applications and in many corrosive environments. However, titanium alloy has low hardness and poor wear resistance. This paper introduces a machining method of SiC abrasive-mixed electrical discharge machining (EDM) with magnetic stirring. Structural features and chemical composition were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Micro-hardness distribution on the cross section was measured with an FM800 micro-hardness tester. The influence of pulse width and pulse peak current on the formation of the surface hardening layer is analyzed. The results show that a continuous strengthened layer was formed during the SiC abrasive-mixed EDM process. The hardness of the formed layer was significantly improved because of the formation of TiC and TiSi2 phases on the machined surface. With the increase of pulse width, the thickness of the strengthened layer increases and the quality becomes better.