Tool-life and wear mechanisms of CBN tools in machining of Inconel 718

The demand for increasing productivity when machining heat resistant alloys has resulted in the use of new tool materials such as cubic boron nitride (CBN) or ceramics. However, CBN tools are mostly used by the automotive industry in hard turning, and the wear of those tools is not sufficiently known in aerospace materials. In addition, the grade of these tools is not optimized for superalloys due to these being a small part of the market, although expanding (at 20% a year). So this investigation has been conducted to show which grade is optimal and what the wear mechanisms are during finishing operations of Inconel 718. It is shown that a low CBN content with a ceramic binder and small grains gives the best results. The wear mechanisms on the rake and flank faces were investigated. Through SEM observations and chemical analysis of the tested inserts, it is shown that the dominant wear mechanisms are adhesion and diffusion due to chemical affinity between elements from workpiece and insert. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.