A comparative study of cutting force, feed force, surface roughness and tool wear in machining of Inconel 718 with uncoated and coated tungsten carbide inserts

Nickel based superalloy, Inconel 718, is widely employed in aerospace industry. Due to its mechanical, thermal and chemical properties, Inconel 718 is generally included among materials that are hard to machine. Machining of Inconel 718 require hard and tough cutting tools. A comparative study of Inconel 718 is conducted in this paper by using three levels of cutting speeds (25, 50, 75 m/min), feed rates (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 mm/rev) and tungsten carbide inserts (Uncoated H10F-S15(T1), TiCN+Al₂O₃+TiN (T2)multicoated and TiAlN coated (T3)). Depth of cut was kept constant at 0.5 mm. Based on extensive experimental data; the results were compared and qualitatively explained in terms of four quantities: (1) Cutting Force (2) Feed Force (3) Surface Roughness and (4) Tool Wear.