Plastic Deformation and Residual Stress in High Speed Turning of AD730™ Nickel-based Superalloy with PCBN and WC Tools

A higher gas turbine efficiency can be achieved by increasing the operating temperature in hot sections. AD730™ is a recently-developed wrought/cast nickel-based superalloy which can maintain excellent mechanical properties above 700 ℃. However, machining of AD730™ could be a difficult task like other nickel-based superalloys. Therefore, studies are needed with respect to the machinability of this new alloy. In this paper, high-speed turning was performed on AD730™ using polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools and coated tungsten carbide (WC) tools at varied cutting speeds. The surface integrity was assessed in two important aspects, i.e., surface and sub-surface plastic deformation and residual stresses. The PCBN tools generally showed better performance compared with the WC tools since it led to reduced machining time without largely compromising the surface integrity achieved. The optimal cutting speed was identified in the range of 200-250 m/min when using the PCBN tools, which gives rise to a good combination of machining efficiency and surface integrity. The further increase of the cutting speed to 300 m/min resulted in severe and deep plastic deformation. Meanwhile, a continuous white layer was formed at the machined surface. When turning with the WC tools, the increased cutting speed from 80 m/min to 100 m/min showed very little effect with respect to the plastic deformation on the machined surface. It was found that tensile residual stresses were developed on all machined surfaces no matter when the PCBN or WC tools were used, and the surface tension was generally increased with increasing cutting speed. The tensile layer might need to be modified by e.g., post-machining surface treatments such as shot peening, if taking good fatigue performance into consideration.