Titanium wire drawing with longitudinal-torsional composite ultrasonic vibration

Compared with the conventional wire drawing process without ultrasonic vibration, which leads to high energy consumption and rough surface finish, the influences of longitudinal-torsional (L&T) composite ultrasonic vibration on titanium wire drawing process were investigated. The effects were discussed both numerically and experimentally in terms of friction force and stress, drawing force and stress, and processed wire surface quality. The analysis indicates that torsional ultrasonic vibration would increase the friction force in some extent, but only modestly, while longitudinal ultrasonic vibration is apparently beneficial to reducing the friction force in wire drawing process. Furthermore, both the longitudinal vibration and the L&T composite vibration are beneficial to decreasing the drawing force and improving the plastic deformation of titanium wires, especially for the latter. In addition, the longitudinal ultrasonic vibration could improve the surface quality of processed wires due to the friction force reduction. The L&T composite ultrasonic vibration could apparently reduce the drawing force as the result of its slight higher friction force within the contact area, which could provide the required plastic deformation energy at the cost of surface quality. The present research provides a new methodology for the ultrasonic titanium wire drawing process.