How to Drill Titanium Alloy? The Challenges and Solutions

Drilling in titanium legering processing has long been a technical challenge due to its unique physical properties, making it more difficult compared to other materials.

Choice and Design of Drill Bits

• Material Selection: Using ordinary high-speed steel and hard alloys to manufacture drill bits to withstand the high hardness and wear resistance of titanium alloys.
• Design Consideration: Choosing a 118° or 90° double apex angle design can effectively cut off chips and improve drilling efficiency.

Chip Clearance Issues

• Difficulty in Chip Clearance: Common problems such as drill bit jamming, breakage, or sticking, which disrupt the entire drilling process.

Tool Wear and Shape Problems

• High-Temperature and Pressure Environment: Drilling may cause rapid tool wear and lead to non-circular holes, skewness, or uneven hole perimeters.

Solutions

• Innovative Measures: Using short and sharp drill bits to reduce contact area with titanium alloys, reducing biting action; pouring sufficient coolant in the cutting area to reduce temperature; adopting low-speed forced feed and sturdy workpiece support to ensure stability and precision.
• Burrs Issue: Precisely adjusting and controlling drill bits to ensure smooth drilling; using heavy-duty short machine drill bits for thick workpieces, and oil-supply drills for deep-hole drilling or a series of short drill bits of varying lengths.
• Careful Operation: When drilling through holes, it’s advisable to retract the drill bit to clean the drill bit and hole, and remove chips; using a strong feed rate during the final breakthrough can achieve smoother hole walls.

Coolant and Chip Removal

• Adequate Coolant: Using sufficient coolant to remove chips and regularly clearing chips to maintain the drill bit’s good working condition.

Through these innovative methods, we have gradually mastered effective techniques for drilling titanium alloys, improving drilling efficiency and quality, and providing strong support for the widespread application of titanium alloys. We believe that with continuous technological advancements, the challenges of drilling in titanium alloy processing will be better addressed.