Effects of the ultrasonic vibration field on polishing process of nickel-based alloy Inconel718

Abstract

In view of the hard machinability of nickel-based alloy Inconel718, an axial ultrasonic vibration assisted polishing method was proposed in this paper with the purpose of improving its surface quality and processing efficiency simultaneously. First of all, an ultrasonic polishing experimental platform was built up. The ultrasonic polishing experiments were accomplished on Inconel718 to study the influence of ultrasonic vibration field on polishing quality. The effects of ultrasonic vibration field on the polishing process were investigated by modeling the motion equation and conducting the trajectory simulation of the abrasive particles in polishing fluid. The corresponding analyses results indicate that the introducing of ultrasonic vibration field changes the motion state and trajectory of the embedded and free abrasive particles, thus effectively improving the polishing quality compared with conventional polishing. Furthermore, a correlation coefficient M was put forward to understand the effects of ultrasonic vibration field on the polishing process in detail. The validation experiments indicate that the correlation coefficient M can qualitatively reflect the relation between the strength of ultrasonic vibration and the polishing quality. Meanwhile, the experiments results are highly consistent with the analytic results of the abrasive particles’ motion and trajectory simulation. The correlation coefficient M could be applied to evaluate and direct the ultrasonic vibration assisted polishing process for Inconel718.