Complex-shaped metal parts high efficiency sawing with diamond wire

•The diamond wire saw is used to efficient roughen complex-shaped metal parts.•The ruled surface model is constructed by the minimum area polygon envelope.•The number of the envelope polygon side affects the material removal rate.•The cutting surface for Al6061 alloy is no metallographic change and crack inside. Aiming at the problems of low machining efficiency and serious tool wear caused by the large removal of the complex-shaped metal parts, a method of high efficiency roughing for the complex-shaped metal parts using the diamond abrasive wire saw cutting technology was proposed. According to the machining characteristics of the wire saw, a ruled surface model was constructed based on the minimum area polygon envelope. To avoid the wire saw breakage caused by the sudden change of the control shaft motion during the cutting process, the least squares method was used to fit the polygon side slope between layers to obtain the smoothed ruled surface model. The effects of the smoothed ruled surface model constructed with different polygon envelopes on the material removal rate were analyzed with the Al6061 aluminum alloy blisk sample. The experimental results verify the wire saw cutting has a high material removal rate, and the integrity of the scrap can realize the reprocessing of other parts. The material removal rate decreases with the envelope polygon side number increase for the Al6061 aluminum alloy blisk sample. There is no metallographic change and crack inside of the surface after wire saw cutting for the Al6061 aluminum alloy. The average surface roughness of the workpiece after equivalent plane wire saw cutting is 529.24 nm. [Display omitted]