Inconel 718 is widely used in different industries including aerospace where part quality concerns drive manufacturing process developments. However, despite extensive research, machining of Inconel 718 is still very challenging, often triggering severe surface quality problems. High temperatures and pressures generated at the contact zone during machining of this class of materials as well as high tool wear rates and aggressive built-up edge formation, result in severe work-hardening and the generation of high levels of unfavorable residual stress on the surface of the workpiece material. The current approach to overcome the high work-hardening of the workpiece and avoid wear and chipping is employing super hard tooling. However, the current results showed that, contrary to what is believed, depositing a very soft metallic layer on the tools can significantly reduce the severity of the dominant tool wear mechanism in this case and thereby improve surface quality. The results were attributed to alleviating the machining induced work-hardening of the workpiece material, which is the main root cause of its high tool wear rate and propensity to the tool chipping. Different soft and lubricous materials were deposited on the tools used for machining of Inconel 718, through an innovative technique and using conventional PVD coating methods. An in-depth surface integrity analysis is performed to study their effect on improving the integrity of the machined workpiece surface including reducing the work-hardening and residual stresses and enhancing the surface roughness.

Inconel 718广泛用于航空航天等不同行业，在这些行业中，零件质量问题驱动着制造工艺的发展。但是，尽管进行了广泛的研究，但是Inconel 718的加工仍然非常具有挑战性，经常会引发严重的表面质量问题。在此类材料的加工过程中，在接触区产生的高温和高压以及较高的刀具磨损率和剧烈的积屑瘤形成，导致严重的加工硬化并在表面上产生大量的不良残余应力工件材料。克服工件的高加工硬化并避免磨损和碎裂的当前方法是采用超硬工具。但是，目前的结果表明，与所认为的相反，在这种情况下，在工具上沉积非常柔软的金属层可以显着降低主要工具磨损机制的严重性，从而提高表面质量。结果归因于减轻了加工引起的工件材料的加工硬化，这是其较高的刀具磨损率和易产生切屑的主要原因。通过一种创新技术并使用常规的PVD涂层方法，将不同的软质和润滑性材料沉积在用于Inconel 718加工的刀具上。进行了深入的表面完整性分析，以研究它们在改善加工工件表面完整性方面的作用，包括减少加工硬化和残余应力以及增强表面粗糙度。