Integration of finishing and surface treatment of Inconel 718 alloy using high-speed ultrasonic vibration cutting

The successful implementation of high-speed ultrasonic vibration cutting (HUVC) to improve the machinability of the Inconel 718 alloy has been reported in literature. However, the influence of HUVC on the surface integrity of the Inconel 718 alloy has not been investigated. In this context, this study is the first attempt to integrate cutting operations and mechanical surface treatment into one step via HUVC. To this end, an experiment was performed to compare the surface integrity of conventional cutting (CC) and HUVC using coated carbide tools at high cutting speeds (80–240 m/min). The experiment revealed that HUVC led to a lower surface roughness, regular surface micro-texture, deeper subsurface deformation zone (up to 104.47 μm), higher surface micro-hardness rate (by up to ~50%), and higher surface compressive residual stress (−1772 to −2323 MPa) compared to CC. In some occasions, a single HUVC step can be used to satisfy requirements originally addressed over two distinct steps (cutting operation and mechanical surface treatment) by improving surface integrity.