Influence of minimum quantity lubrication on the high speed turning of aerospace material superalloy Inconel 718

Superalloy, Inconel 718 is termed as 'difficult to cut' material due to its poor machinability. In order to effectively take advantage of inherent properties such as high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, creep resistance, and high strength to weight ratio and longer operational life of Inconel 718, it is necessary to improve its machinability. Hence, researchers and industry are working to explore the machinability characteristics of this material particularly with respect to high speed machining (HSM). In these investigations machinability characteristics of Inconel 718 under dry and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) conditions were evaluated with respect to cutting forces, surface roughness and tool wear using K20 tungsten carbide cutting tool. Moreover, X-ray diffraction analysis of the collected chips was carried out to study the direct effect of dry and MQL cutting conditions to confirm the experimental results obtained. It was observed that machining of Inconel 718 under MQL condition has out performed than the dry condition. The same was confirmed with SEM tool wear analysis and XRD analysis of the chips. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.