Study on wear morphology of uncoated and MT-CVD TiCN-Al2O3 coated carbide inserts during dry machining of Inconel 825 superalloy

Abstract

The adoption of the High Speed Machining (HSM) approach by industries to enhance productivity is crucial in order to fulfill the growing demand of the global market. Understanding superalloys' machining behavior is also necessary since they play a significant role in a variety of industries, including the aerospace industry, marine engine parts, biomedical applications, chemical and petrochemical industries, and nuclear fuel processing plants. Hence, dry machining performance of ‘difficult-to-cut’ aerospace superalloy Inconel 825 is studied herein. With uncoated and MT-CVD TiCN-Al2O3 coated carbide inserts, machining experiments are performed at various cutting speeds. Detailed tool wear mechanisms are discussed for each of the cutting inserts with regard to different cutting speeds and hence the performance gain with coated carbide tools is understood as compared to its uncoated counterpart for dry machining of Inconel 825 superalloy.