ANALYSIS OF MACHINING PARAMETERS OF INCONEL
718 USING TAGUCHI METHOD
R.ThirumalaiA
ABSTRACT
High speed machining is the general phenomenon in
modern aspects of machining. Extensive researchers have
been conducted several experiments in the past for
selecting the optimum parameters in machining Inconel
718. In this work, cutting speed, feed and depth of cut are
considered as the machining parameters and surface
roughness, cutting tool temperature, cutting force, tool life
and metal removal rate are considered as the responses.
This paper is an attempt to Taguchi optimization technique
to study the machinability performances of Inconel 718.
Taguchi approach is an efficient and effective experimental
method in which a response variable can be optimized,
given various control and noise factors, using fewer
experiments than a factorial design. An orthogonal array of
L 27 was used; signal-to-noise ration and ANOVA analysis
were carried out to identify the significant factors. The
objective of this study is to predict the optimum cutting
conditions to minimize surface roughness, maximum tool
life, minimize cutting tool temperature, maximize metal
removal rate and maximize cutting force. Confirmation
tests were conducted at an optimal level and these tests
verified that the Taguchi approach was successful in
optimizing the cutting parameters.
Key words: High speed machining, Anova, Taguchi,
Design of experiments, optimization.
1. INTRODUCTION
Machining operations have been the centre of
attraction of the manufacturing industry since the
revolution of industries. Machining of different
materials strive hard either to achieve a minimum
cost of production or maximum production rate or an
processes (4). Inconel 718 is one among the most
commonly used alloys and find application in aero
engine parts, rotor blades, casing, rings, and engine
parts.
First Author : A: Department of Mechatronics Engg.
Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore
Email: vkrthirumalai@gmail.com
Second Author: B: Principal, Podhigai College of Engineering &
Technology, Tirupattur, Vellore.
JS SenthilkumaarB
optimum combination of both, along with the better
quality in machining. These objectives have gained
importance in economic liberalization and
globalization. Manufacturing process for a product
consists of several phases, such as design, process
planning, machining and quality control.
Machinability is the measure of ease with which the
work material can be machined. The economics of
machining involves in the determination of optimum
process parameters like cutting speed, feed and depth
of cut in order to optimize an objective function (3).
Minimum cost of production, minimum surface
roughness, minimum tool wear, maximum production
rate, minimum cutting force, minimum flank wear
and maximum tool life are some of the essential
objective functions in the machining process.
Machinability also involves finishability and
obtaining good surface finish. As per the
recommendations of the cutting tool manufacturer on
machining of hard materials such as inconel 718, the
main parameters such as surface roughness and flank
wear are taken into account.
Heat resistant super alloys (HRSA) maintain
excellent mechanical strength at elevated
temperatures, typically between 7000C and 11000C.
HRSA represents the largest group of materials in
aerospace industries. HRSA exhibit exceptional
properties such as corrosion resistance, creep
resistance, and retaining strength and hardness at
elevated temperatures. Among HRSA, nickel based
alloys are most widely used nowadays for various
manufacturing
During machining tools are subjected to rubbing
process, which creates friction between the cutting
tool and work piece material. This results in
progressive material loss in the cutting tool. Tool
wear is a change of shape of tool from its original
position resulting from gradual loss of tool material.
The consequences of tool wear are poor surface
finish, increase in vibration of the machine tool,
increase in cutting force, lowering the productivity
and quality. Tool wear can be categorized into several
types as crater wear, notch wear, chipping, plastic
deformations, ultimate failure and flank wear based
on tool wear phenomenon. Flank wear determines the
tool life. Wear on the relief side is the flank wear and
it occurs due to abrasive wear of the cutting tool
against the machined surface.
Machining parameter and tool geometry are the
important parameters that affects the machinability
properties. A machinability model may be defined as
a functional relationship between the input
parameters ( cutting speed, feed, and depth of cut)
and the output responses ( surface roughness , metal
removal rate, cutting force, power and flank wear) of
machining process (1). In order to develop a
mathematical model, it is necessary to conduct the
experiments involving the tool material and the work
material. The response data are obtained from the
experimental work, by keeping cutting speed, feed
and depth of cut as the function of machining
process. Uncoated carbide tools are used to machine
nickel-based alloys at cutting speed range of 10
30m/min and at feed rates upto 0.5mm/rev for
improved productivity. Carbides are most widely
used as cutting tool material to machine inconel 718
at slow speeds (6). Uncoated carbide tools are widely
used to due to its economic consideration. Machining
of inconel 718 is carried out with uncoated carbide
tools at cutting speed range of 10 30 m/min and at
feed rates up to 0.5 mm/rev for improved
productivity. In machining of parts, surface roughness
is the most important technical requirement to
achieve proper assembly of machined components.
The surface roughness is the direct indicator of
surface quality that directly relies on tool geometry
such as nose radius, edge geometry, rake angle etc
(7). In machining, tool wear becomes an additional
Table. 1 Chemical composition of Inconel 718 ( Weight Basis)
Table 2. Mechanical Properties of Inconel 718
parameter affecting the surface. Flank wear directly
influences dimensions and quality of the surface (5).
In this work, square inserts are preferred over
triangular inserts because they have stronger
geometry and cost effectiveness due to more cutting
edges. The main goal of this paper is to optimize the
machining parameters of Inconel 718.
The full factorial experiment design approach is
utilized for experimental planning and to investigate
the influence of machining parameters (2) on the
surface roughness and flank wear. Response surface
methodology is a combination of experimental and
regression analysis and statistical influences. Using
RSM and factorial design of experiments,
mathematical models relating to surface roughness
and flank wear have been developed.
2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Single pass turning in dry condition is conducted in
order to investigate the performance and to study the
wear mechanism of uncoated carbide tools on Inconel
718 in the form of cylindrical bar stock of diameter
38mm (5). The experiment is conducted on L16 ACE
designer lathe with the following specifications:
power, 7.5 kW motor drive; speed range, 0 3,500
rpm, and feed range, 0.01 1,000 mm/rev with
constant speed capabilities.
2.1 WORK MATERIAL
The test specimens to conduct the experiment were
prepared form 38 mm cylindrical bar stock. Each
specimen having 38mm in diameter and 75mm in
length were used for turning. The chemical
composition of the material is given in the Table 1
and the mechanical properties of Inconel 718 are
shown in Table 2.
 2.2 TOOL MATERIAL
The cutting materials are K10 type uncoated carbide
inserts, and as per ISO specification, inserts are
designated as SNMG 120408 QM H13A, which are
having the following tool geometry: inclination
angle, -60; orthogonal rake angle, -60; orthogonal
clearance angle, 60; auxiliary cutting edge angel, 140;
principal cutting edge angle, 750; and nose radius, 0.8
mm. Cutting tool inserts were clamped onto a tool
holder with a designation of DBSNR 2020K 12 for
machining process.
Table 3. Machining parameters and levels
________________________________________________________________________________________
Machining parameters Level 1
Cutting speed V (m/min) 25
Feed f (mm/rev) 0.1
Depth of cut d (mm) 1.0
Surface roughness was measured by Mittoyo-surftest
211 with sampling length of 0.25mm. The flank was
measured by Olympus Toolmakers microscope with
10x magnification and 1- m resolution coupled with
image processing software.
3. DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS
Three levels were specified for each of the factors as
machining parameters (cutting speed, feed, and depth
of cut). The orthogonal array L27 was chosen, which
consists of 27 rows corresponding to the number of
parameters combinations at three levels. The input
parameters are cutting speed, feed and depth of cut.
Using the factorial design of experiments, 27
experiments are conducted for the machining ranges
and the values for the responses such as, surface
roughness, cutting force, cutting tool temperature,
MRR and tool life are measured. (Datas not shown
here)
2.3 MACHINING PARAMETERS AND LEVELS
The parameter level is chosen within the intervals
based on the recommendations by the cutting tool
manufacturer (8). In full factorial design, three
process parameters at three levels led to a total of 27
tests for machining processes. The machining
operations are carried out on a 7.5 kW LT16 CNC
lathe with a maximum spindle speed of 3,500 rpm.
Three levels are specified for each process parameter
as given in Table 3.
Level 2 Level 3
35 45
0.15 0.2
1.25 1.5
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION ANALYSIS OF
SURFACE ROUGHNESS
The analysis of data begins with the determinations
of the effects of each treatment level on the response
and S/N ratio. Based on Taguchis optimization
process, the percentage level of contribution of feed
rate is found to be the predominant parameter (9).
The analysis also predicted that the feed followed by
cutting speed and depth of cut will be dominating
parameters in the process of optimization. Analysis of
variance for Surface roughness is shown in table 4
and the Response table for means is shown in Table 5
and main effects plots for surface roughness against
parameters under various conditions are given in fig
1.
 Table 4. Analysis of Variance of surface roughness
source DF Seq SS Adj SS Adj MS F P % C
v 2 0.48593 0.48593 0.24297 528485.8 0 3.398426
f 2 13.73818 13.73818 6.86909 14941235 0 96.08006
d 2 0.00514 0.00514 0.00257 5592.17 0 0.035947
v*f 4 0.0691 0.0691 0.01728 37576.79 0 0.483261
v*d 4 0.00003 0.00003 0.00001 14.06 0.001 0.00021
f*d 4 0.0003 0.0003 0.00018 397.62 0 0.002098
Error 8 0 0 0 0
Total 26 14.29911 14.29868 100

S = 0.000678042 R-Sq = 100.00% R-Sq(adj) = 100.00%

Main Effects Plot for Means - Ra
Data Means

v f
3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5
Mean of Means

1.0
25 35 45 0.10 0.15 0.20
d
3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0
1.00 1.25 1.50

Tabl
e 5. Response Table for Means

Level v f d
1 2.065 1.039 1.909
2 1.871 1.850 1.890
3 1.738 2.785 1.875
Delta 0.327 1.746 0.034
Rank 2 1 3

Fig 1. Main effect plots for surface roughness

4.2 TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION ANALYSIS OF
TOOL LIFE
The objective of this work is to maximize the tool
life. The study found that fee rate contributes around
63% followed by cutting speed and depth of cut with
22% and 8% respectively. The taguchi analysis
Table 6. Analysis of Variance of Tool life
revelaed that feed is given the Rank 1 and cutting
speed the rank 2 and depth of cut the rank 3. The
analysis of variance of tool life is shown in Table.6
and the Response table for means is shown in Table 7
and main effects plots for Tool life against parameters
under various conditions are given in fig 2.
 Source DF Seq SS Adj SS Adj MS F P % C
v 2 484.87 484.87 242.44 523.22 0.000 21.393
f 2 1427.48 1427.48 713.74 1540.38 0.000 63.051
d 2 166.35 166.35 83.17 179.50 0.000 7.3487
v*f 4 124.19 124.19 31.05 67.01 0.000 5.4862
v*d 4 14.47 14.47 3.62 7.81 0.007 0.6392
f*d 4 42.61 42.61 10.65 22.99 0.000 1.8823
Error 8 3.71 3.71 0.46 0.1639
Total 26 2263.68
99.965

Table 7. Response Table for Means Fig.2 Mean effect plots for Tool life
Main Effects Plot for Means - TL
Data Means

v f
25

20

15

10
Mean of Means

5
25 35 45 0.10 0.15 0.20
d
25

20

15

10

5
1.00 1.25 1.50

Level v f d
1 20.010 24.281 17.591
2 13.295 11.775 13.957
3 9.797 7.046 11.553
Delta 10.213 17.235 6.038
Rank 2 1 3

4.3 TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION ANALYSIS OF
CUTTING FORCE
The cutting force acts along the direction of the
cutting speed. The results indicate that with an
increase in cutting speed, the cutting force decreases
and it is high with larger depth of cut. Also cutting
forces increases with an increase in feed rate. Form
the Anova table, it is found that feed rate is the
dominant parameter which aims at a percentage of
Table 8. Analysis of Variance of cutting force
62, followed by depth of cut and cutting speed with
345 and 4% respectively. Also the response table of
means shows the ranking in the form of feed, depth
of cut and cutting speed. The analysis of varience for
cutting force is shown in Table 8 and the Response
table for means is shown in Table 9. The main effects
plots for Tool life against parameters under various
conditions are given in fig 3.
 Source DF Seq SS Adj SS Adj MS F P % C
3.545
v 2 58591 58591 29295 5463.43 0.000 5
61.01
f 2 1008301 1008301 504150 94021.05 0.000 5
34.00
d 2 561941 561941 280971 52399.36 0.000 4
0.128
v*f 4 2124 2124 531 99.01 0.000 5
0.071
v*d 4 1184 1184 296 55.18 0.000 6
1.232
f*d 4 20367 20367 5092 949.60 0.000 5
0.002
Error 8 43 43 5 6
Total 26 1652551
100

Table 9. Response table for Means Fig 3. Mean effect plots for cutting force

Main Effects Plot for Means - Fc

Data Means
v f

1200
1100
1000
900
Mean of Means

800

25 35 45 0.10 0.15 0.20

d

1200
1100
1000
900
800

1.00 1.25 1.50

Level v f d
1 1075.1 774.3 837.6
2 1008.5 1023.4 1016.6
3 961.5 1247.4 1191.0
Delta 113.5 473.1 353.4
Rank 3 1 2

4.4 TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION ANALYSIS OF Inconel 718 has low thermal conductivity and
CUTTING TOOL TEMPERATURE specific heat which involves several problems in
machining this material. This work intends in
minimization of cutting tool temperature. Form the
Anova table obtained for the cutting tool temperature,
it is found that feed and cutting speed are equally
important in contribution and depth of cut is least
contributing parameter in the optimization process.
The Taguchi analysis revealed that ranking of
parameters will be done in such a manner that feed
followed by cutting speed and then followed by depth
of cut. The analysis of variance for cutting tool
temperature is shown in Table 10 and the Response
table for means is shown in Table 11. The main
effects plots for Tool life against parameters under
various conditions are given in fig 4.

Table 10. Analysis of Variance of cutting Tool temperature

Source DF Seq SS Adj SS Adj MS F
P C%
v 2 47239.5 47239.5 23619.8 1249418.74 45.2053
0.000 1
f 2 52454.0 52454.0 26227.0 1387332.35 50.1952
0.000 6
d 2 4464.5 4464.5 2232.3 118080.25 4.27225
0.000 3
v*f 4 289.7 289.7 72.4 3831.38 0.27722
0.000 5
v*d 4 24.7 24.7 6.2 326.10 0.02363
0.000 6
f*d 4 27.4 27.4 6.8 362.10
0.000 0.02622
0.00019
Error 8 0.2 0.2 0.0 1
Total 26 104499.9 100

Table 11. Response table for Means Fig 4. Mean effect plots for cutting tool temperature
Main Effects Plot for Means - CT
Data Means
v f

600

575

550
Mean of Means

525

500
25 35 45 0.10 0.15 0.20
d

600

575
550
525

500
1.00 1.25 1.50

Level v f d
1 510.0 506.8 546.6
2 566.2 567.2 563.7
3 612.3 614.5 578.1
Delta 102.3 107.7 31.5
Rank 2 1 3

5. CONCLUSION
The investigation of high speed turning of inconel
718 using Taguchi optimization technique leads to the
following inferences:
In this study the optimal cutting condition
was selected by varying the cutting
parameters through the Taguchi parameter
design method. The results indicated the
Taguchi parameter was an efficien way of
determining the optimal cutting parameters
for surface roughness, tool life, cutting
force, Metal removal rate and cutting tool
temperature.
The observations indicated that cutting
speed, feed and depth of cut and the
interaction effect between these parameters
influence the response variable to a greater
extent. It is also inferred that tool life is only
influenced by cutting speed alone.
The R2 value for the regression equations is
considered and it is found that they are
enough to obtain reliable estimates.
The influence of feed followed by cutting
speed and depth of cut plays the
predominant role in the taguchi analysis of
all the responses.
6. References
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inconel 718 by factorial design of
experiment coupled with response surface
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2. Douglas C. Montgomery.(2005), Design
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John Wiley & Sons.
3. Dudzinski, D. et al., 2004, A review of
developments towards dry and high speed
machining of Inconel 718 alloy, Inte. J.
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456.
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optimisation for
machinability assessment of Inconel 718,
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