INVESTIGATION S INTO FLAT SURFACE FINISHING OF INCONEL 718 SURFACE WITH MAGNETIC ABRASIVE FINISHING PROCESS

With technological developments in manufacturing industry, very hard and tough materials are being developed. Inconel 718 is one such material, which is nickel based super alloy having high temperature and high-pressure application. Inconel 718 is very difficult for machining, because of its materialistic properties. Surface finish produced after any machining process on Inconel 718, is generally not up to the required level. So, surface finish of Inconel 718 is a challenging job to tackle with. In the present research work, an attempt has been made for external surface finishing, of Inconel 718 flat surface (5mm thickness plate), by using magnetic abrasive finishing process. Several experiments have been designed and performed, to study the effect of three selected process parameters such as processing time, pole rotational speed and weight percentage of abrasive particle, on percentage improvement in surface finishing. An experimental setup has been developed, to investigate the performance in term of percentage improvement in surface finish and qualitative micro structural changes on the surface, by using SEM. For analysis of experimental results, an ANOVA has been used. Experimental results indicate that, all the above-mentioned parameters have significant effect on surface finishing of Inconel 718.