Experimental Investigation into the Effect of Ball End Milling Parameters on Surface Integrity of Inconel 718

In machining of Inconel 718, various difficulties such as increased tool wear and poor machined surface quality are frequently encountered due to its high temperature strength and poor thermal properties. This work considers the effect of number of passes and the machining environment on the machined surface quality in ball end milling of Inconel 718, which hitherto has not been adequately understood. To this effect, extensive experimentation has been carried out to analyze machined surface quality and integrity in terms of surface roughness, surface damage, and microhardness variation in the machined surfaces. The machined surfaces show formation of distinct bands as a function of instantaneous machining parameters along the periphery of cutting tool edge. A distinct variation is also observed in the measured values of surface roughness and microhardness in these regions. The minimum surface roughness is obtained in the stable cutting zone and it increases toward the periphery of the cutter on band #2 and band #3. Microhardness of depth beneath the machined surface shows that the machining affected zone varies from 60 to 100 A mu m in ball end milling under various machining conditions.