Fabrication of functionalised surfaces on gum metal (Ti-30Nb) using micromachining

Structured surfaces are attracting deep interest, as they allow tailoring the functionality via changes in the surface topography. Applications for these surfaces range greatly, including, optical surfaces for antireflective surfaces, thermal structures to assist in heat dispersion and anti-fouling surfaces to reduce micro-organisms from adhering to components. Gum metal is a relatively newer kind of beta titanium alloy that has earmarked its place as the next generation Ortheopedic implant material. In a timely effort, this work investigated the generation of micron level structured surfaces on Gum metal (Ti-30Nb – a beta titanium alloy) to explore micromilling as the robust scalable process to achieve low dimensional surfaces in titanium alloy. During micromilling, the feedrate, spindle speed, axial depth of cut and tool step over were varied to optimise these parameters for achieving superior quality of machining.