Surface Integrity of Inconel 718 by Ball Burnishing

Inconel 718 has wide applications in manufacturing mechanical components such as turbine blades, turbocharger rotors, and nuclear reactors. Since these components are subject to harsh environments such as high temperature, pressure, and corrosion, it is critical to improve the functionality to prevent catastrophic failure due to fatigue or corrosion. Ball burnishing as a low plastic deformation process is a promising technique to enhance surface integrity for increasing component fatigue and corrosion resistance in service. This study focuses on the experimental study on surface integrity of burnished Inconel 718. The effects of burnishing ball size and pressure on surface integrity factors such as surface topography, roughness, and hardness are investigated. The burnished surfaces are smoother than the as-machined ones. Surface hardness after burnishing is higher than the as-machined surfaces, but become stable over a certain burnishing pressure. There exists an optimal process space of ball sized and burnishing pressure for surface finish. In addition, surface hardness after burnishing is higher than the as-machined surfaces, which is confirmed by statistical analysis.