Milling Ti alloy is a very difficult technology. The primary problem is that the miller wear is very rapid and makes the miller break or rapture. Although cutting fluid is mainly used to reduce friction and temperature in cutting area to enhance tool life, it is the largest source of environmental pollution. To develop a technology for the clean and efficient milling Ti alloys, nitrogen gas is used as a cutting media in this paper. Based on lots of experiments and researches, the tool life and wear mechanism of high speed steel miller is analyzed. A conclusion is drawn that, milling with nitrogen gas media yields much longer tool life than dry milling. Tool life equations (Taylor′s equations) are derived for both milling types.
