Micromachining of Inconel 600

Abstract

Today, various industries has increased their demand of miniature components as time advances. As a result it opens a gateway for researcher towards micro manufacturing in the field of aerospace, nuclear, telecom and biomedical sector. Nickle-based alloys possess high tensile strength, strong corrosion resistance and low thermal conductivity having sufficient use in a wide range of temperature application. These alloys are considered as difficult-to-machine material for their low machinability rating. In this research Inconel 600 was selected as workpiece material. Micromachining were performed upto 20 mm length with different combination of machining parameters like feed/tooth, cutting speed, depth of cut, and cooling conditions using orthogonal L9 array. Two-flute, un-coated Tungsten carbide cutter of 0.5 mm diameter were used in experiment. Results were analyzed through analysis of variance to see influence of these parameters on burr generation, tool flank wear, and surface roughness. Results shows that small DOC, high feed rate and high cutting velocity at dry condition results small burr formation with compromise on surface quality and tool wear. Similarly small DOC, low feed rate and high cutting velocity at MQL condition results low surface roughness with compromise on burr formation. Minimum tool wear was observed at low (cutting velocity, feed rate, and DOC) using MQL as cooling method. Optimum parameters has been established using response optimization to get output response as minimum. In future, same procedure can be adopted to replace uncoated tool with coated tool and observe it effect on output response.