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An assessment of tool life in drilling of Inconel 718 using cathodic arc PVD coated carbide bits

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Abstract

The study investigates the performance of TiN and TiAlN coated carbide tools to improve the tool life in the limited explored drilling operation of difficult-to-cut Inconel 718 (IN 718). We deposited these coatings over tungsten carbide (WC) drill bits through the cathodic arc PVD route and evaluated their tool life at optimized machining parameters. Tool wear initiated with chipping at the corner of the margin and cutting edge (periphery wear), followed by coating abrasion and flank wear. In the case of TiAlN coated drill bit, we observed a notable built-up edge (BUE), indicating adhesive wear, which is not distinctly noticeable in the case of TiN coated drill bits. The comparison of the associated machining challenges between IN 718 and relatively softer EN 24 revealed no chipping but a significant built-up edge in the case of EN 24. At optimized machining parameters of 800 rpm spindle speed and 30 mm/min feed rate, TiAlN and TiN coated drill bits performed 2 and 1.6 times, respectively, better than uncoated drill bits in terms of the number of holes drilled. In addition, the performance of commercially available TiAlN coated drill bits was also compared with that of TiAlN coated drill bits produced in the present study by employing identical machining conditions. The in-house TiAlN coated drill bits yielded 50% additional life than the commercially available TiAlN coated drill bits. Additionally, the machined surface of drilled holes with TiAlN coated drill bits resulted in lower roughness (Ra) than the uncoated drill bits at the end of the respective tool life. The underlying reasons were analyzed and discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors greatly acknowledge Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, for financial support vide sanction order: DST/TMD/CERI/CleanCoal/2017/036. Permission granted by Director, ARCI, to publish this work is also gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), RCI Road, Balapur, Hyderabad, 500 005, Telangana, India

    Nitin Tandekar, Ambati Sandeep, Praveen Kumar, Pooja Miryalkar & Krishna Valleti

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  1. Nitin Tandekar
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  2. Ambati Sandeep
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  3. Praveen Kumar
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  4. Pooja Miryalkar
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  5. Krishna Valleti
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Contributions

Krishna Valleti: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, writing – review and editing, supervision. Nitin Tandekar: Formal analysis, writing – original draft, data curation, visualization. Ambati Sandeep: Data curation. Praveen Kumar: Data curation. Pooja Miryalkar: Data curation.

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Correspondence to Nitin Tandekar.

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Highlights

• Effect of CAPVD wear-resistant coatings on tool performance in drilling IN 718 is highlighted.

• TiAlN coated drill bit offered 2 times the life of uncoated drill bit and 1.5 times the life of commercially available coated drill bit.

• Unlike conventional steels, IN 718 drilling exhibited chipping as predominant failure mode.

• Abrasive and adhesive wear were dominant wear mechanisms observed while drilling IN 718.

• TiAlN coated drill bit resulted in better surface roughness as compared with uncoated drill bit.

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Tandekar, N., Sandeep, A., Kumar, P. et al. An assessment of tool life in drilling of Inconel 718 using cathodic arc PVD coated carbide bits. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 120, 4821–4833 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-09057-8

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