Enhanced drilling process to improve hole quality of additively manufactured Inconel 718 Alloy

Enhanced drilling process to improve hole quality of additively manufactured Inconel 718 Alloy

Ozhan Kitay, Yusuf Kaynak, Aqib Mashood Khan

Abstract. Post-processing plays a critical role considering the product fabricated by additive manufacturing process. The hole produced in the additively manufactured products requires additional attention in terms of surface and subsurface quality. In this study, drilling was applied to improve the hole quality of Inconel 718 alloy manufactured by powder bed fusion-laser beam (PBF-LB) method. Inconel 718 alloy manufactured under different PBF-LB process parameters was drilled with sharp corner, radius corner, and chamfer corner drill bits. The measured outputs were the surface quality of drilled hole, surface topography, surface and subsurface microhardness. This study showed that drilling process helps to improve the surface quality of additively manufactured Inconel 718 by reducing the surface roughness. Depending on the geometry of cutting edge of drill bit used in drilling operation, it is possible to improve surface quality by 90% comparing to the as built quality.

Keywords
Additive Manufacturing, Inconel 718, Drilling, Surface Quality, Microhardness

Published online 5/7/2025, 10 pages
Copyright © 2025 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Ozhan Kitay, Yusuf Kaynak, Aqib Mashood Khan, Enhanced drilling process to improve hole quality of additively manufactured Inconel 718 Alloy, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 54, pp 228-237, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903599-25

The article was published as article 25 of the book Material Forming

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

References
[1] A. A. Popovich, V. S. Sufiiarov, I. A. Polozov, and E. V. Borisov, “Microstructure and mechanical properties of Inconel 718 produced by SLM and subsequent heat treatment,” in Key Engineering Materials, 2015, vol. 651, pp. 665-670: Trans Tech Publ. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.651-653.665
[2] Q. Jia and D. Gu, “Selective laser melting additive manufacturing of Inconel 718 superalloy parts: Densification, microstructure and properties,” Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 585, pp. 713-721, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2013.09.171
[3] Y. Lu et al., “Study on the microstructure, mechanical property and residual stress of SLM Inconel-718 alloy manufactured by differing island scanning strategy,” Optics & Laser Technology, vol. 75, pp. 197-206, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2015.07.009
[4] Q. B. Nguyen, M. L. S. Nai, Z. Zhu, C.-N. Sun, J. Wei, and W. Zhou, “Characteristics of inconel powders for powder-bed additive manufacturing,” Engineering, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 695-700, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENG.2017.05.012
[5] P. Kumar, J. Farah, J. Akram, C. Teng, J. Ginn, and M. Misra, “Influence of laser processing parameters on porosity in Inconel 718 during additive manufacturing,” The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 103, no. 1, pp. 1497-1507, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-03655-9
[6] K. Kulawik, P. Buffat, A. Kruk, A. Wusatowska-Sarnek, and A. Czyrska-Filemonowicz, “Imaging and characterization of γ′ and γ ″nanoparticles in Inconel 718 by EDX elemental mapping and FIB-SEM tomography,” Materials Characterization, vol. 100, pp. 74-80, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2014.12.012
[7] V. Popovich, E. Borisov, A. Popovich, V. S. Sufiiarov, D. Masaylo, and L. Alzina, “Impact of heat treatment on mechanical behaviour of Inconel 718 processed with tailored microstructure by selective laser melting,” Materials & Design, vol. 131, pp. 12-22, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2017.05.065
[8] K. Prashanth, S. Scudino, T. Maity, J. Das, and J. Eckert, “Is the energy density a reliable parameter for materials synthesis by selective laser melting?,” Materials Research Letters, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 386-390, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1080/21663831.2017.1299808
[9] S. Sartori, A. Bordin, A. Ghiotti, and S. Bruschi, “Analysis of the surface integrity in cryogenic turning of Ti6Al4 v produced by direct melting laser sintering,” Procedia Cirp, vol. 45, pp. 123-126, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2016.02.328
[10] A. Khorasani, I. Gibson, U. S. Awan, and A. Ghaderi, “The effect of SLM process parameters on density, hardness, tensile strength and surface quality of Ti-6Al-4V,” Additive manufacturing, vol. 25, pp. 176-186, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2018.09.002
[11] S. L. Sing, F. E. Wiria, and W. Y. Yeong, “Selective laser melting of titanium alloy with 50 wt% tantalum: effect of laser process parameters on part quality,” International Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials, vol. 77, pp. 120-127, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2018.08.006
[12] J.-P. Choi et al., “Densification and microstructural investigation of Inconel 718 parts fabricated by selective laser melting,” Powder technology, vol. 310, pp. 60-66, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2017.01.030
[13] S. Greco, K. Gutzeit, H. Hotz, B. Kirsch, and J. C. Aurich, “Selective laser melting (SLM) of AISI 316L-impact of laser power, layer thickness, and hatch spacing on roughness, density, and microhardness at constant input energy density,” The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 108, pp. 1551-1562, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-05510-8
[14] H. Wan, Z. Zhou, C. Li, G. Chen, and G. Zhang, “Effect of scanning strategy on mechanical properties of selective laser melted Inconel 718,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 753, pp. 42-48, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2019.03.007
[15] E. Mirkoohi, D. E. Sievers, H. Garmestani, K. Chiang, and S. Y. Liang, “Three-dimensional semi-elliptical modeling of melt pool geometry considering hatch spacing and time spacing in metal additive manufacturing,” Journal of Manufacturing Processes, vol. 45, pp. 532-543, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2019.07.028
[16] G. E. Bean, D. B. Witkin, T. D. McLouth, D. N. Patel, and R. J. Zaldivar, “Effect of laser focus shift on surface quality and density of Inconel 718 parts produced via selective laser melting,” Additive Manufacturing, vol. 22, pp. 207-215, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2018.04.024
[17] K. Guan, Z. Wang, M. Gao, X. Li, and X. Zeng, “Effects of processing parameters on tensile properties of selective laser melted 304 stainless steel,” Materials & Design, vol. 50, pp. 581-586, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.03.056
[18] Y. Kaynak and O. Kitay, “Porosity, surface quality, microhardness and microstructure of selective laser melted 316L stainless steel resulting from finish machining,” Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing, vol. 2, no. 2, p. 36, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmmp2020036
[19] D. Brown, C. Li, Z. Liu, X. Fang, and Y. Guo, “Surface integrity of Inconel 718 by hybrid selective laser melting and milling,” Virtual and Physical Prototyping, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 26-31, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452759.2017.1392681