In the 90’s there were significant advancements made in high speed machining (HSM) of Aluminum. This was aided by technological advancements in the machine tool capabilities and the cutting tool development. With the rapid increase in use of Titanium and the growing demand from the industry to replicate the success achieved in Aluminum HSM to Titanium machining has fueled development of analytical and numerical methods to understand the underlying physics for HSM. Although the objective of HSM machining in Aluminum and Titanium is the same, since the material properties and behavior under machining conditions are entirely different the use of validated material modeling technology is a must to take the next leap.

One such method of machining modeling is application of the finite element method (FEM). Here a three-dimensional FEM model is presented which includes fully adaptive unstructured mesh generation, tight thermo-mechanically coupling, deformable tool-chip-workpiece contact, interfacial heat transfer across the tool-chip boundary, momentum effects at high speeds and constitutive models appropriate for high strain rate, finite deformation analyses. This work has provided an understanding of the HSM process in Aluminum and has opened new possibilities in achieving the same in Titanium.

The application of this modeling technology has already yielded significant improvements over existing industry standards. The presentation here will provide industry applications where the use of modeling technology resulted in substantial economic benefits. These benefits include reduction of machining costs – machining time and tool costs, reduced dependency on testing trial and error methods and improved work piece quality.