Proceedings of

th th
6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference
(AIMTDR-2016)
College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA
December 16-18, 2016

Experimental Investigations on HAZ and Recast Layer in

WEDM on Inconel 718
Deepak G. Dilip1, Subrahmanyam A.2, Basil Kuriachen3, Satyananda Panda4 and Jose Mathew5
1,2,4,5National
Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode, Kerala–673601, India
3National Institute of Technology Mizoram, Aizawl, Mizoram–796012, India
E-mail: 1deepakgd1@yahoo.co.in, 2subrahmanyam4981@gmail.com, 3basilkuriachen@gmail.com,
4satyanand@nitc.ac.in, 5josmat@nitc.ac.in

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The manufacturing industries have thrived for materials which can be both light weight and provide
Wire Electric Discharge Machining all the necessary properties like high corrosion resistance, high strength, etc. The materials like
Surface Integrity titanium alloys, inconel, etc. though being superior in their mechanical properties have very poor
Heat Affected Zone machinability making the conventional machining techniques a difficult methodology for their
Recast Layer machining. This has called for non-traditional machining techniques. Electrical discharge machining
SEM (EDM) process is one of the most powerful amongst the non-traditional machining processes. Wire
EDS Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM), one of the variants of EDM, primarily used for slot
Nano-indentation cutting is widely used because of its ability to machine any complex pattern provided the material is
electrically conductive. Since WEDM being a thermal process, the surface integrity of the machined
work piece gets affected. Surface integrity plays a major role in the functionality of the components
being machined. The present work aims at finding out the optimum parameter setting for minimizing
recast layer (RL) and Heat Affected Zone (HAZ). A full factorial design was used for carrying out
the experiments to find the effect of process parameters like pulse on time (ton), pulse off time (toff)
and servo voltage (V) on the thickness of recast layer and Heat Affected Zone. The recast layer was
measured using Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)
analysis was performed to find out its composition. Micro hardness measured along the transverse
direction to the machined slot was used to calculate the Heat Affected Zone. Micro hardness is
measured using Nano-indentation technique. The obtained results showed that pulse on time and
pulse off time were the most influential factors which determined the surface characteristics.

1. Introduction process forces. Since EDM/WEDM is a thermal process there

Wire Electric Discharge Machining (WEDM) is one of the
variants of conventional EDM process primarily used for
making complex shapes on dies and molds which are widely
used in the industry. The basic principle of the process is similar
to that of EDM i.e. melting and vapourization. The difference
comes in the fact that here the tool electrode is an electrically
conducting wire. Since WEDM is a thermal process there is a
need to investigate the surface integrity aspects of the machined
specimens. Surface integrity broadly deals with two aspects.
One is surface topography which consists of roughness,
waviness and errors. Other one is surface layer characteristics
which includes micro hardness, residual stresses, plastic
deformation and heat affected zone. Inconel 718 owing to its
mechanical properties is difficult to machine using the
conventional machining techniques like milling turning, etc. It
has many applications mainly in the aerospace industry. In
order to solve this issue manufacturing companies are looking
into the non-traditional machining techniques in which major
issues faced by conventional machining methods are solved.
Among those techniques EDM has proven to be a very
important methodology owing to its ability to machine any
electrically conductive material with high accuracy and zero
will be some metallurgical changes associated with the process
on the workpiece surface. So related studies in that regard
assumes great significance. A brief outlook of studies on
WEDMed surface integrity is given below.
Li et al. [1] studied the surface integrity aspects of Inconel
718 when machined with WEDM at different discharge energy
levels. In surface integrity they mainly focussed on surface
roughness. They found that surface roughness increases with
increase in discharge energy. They also found that surface
roughness is equivalent for both parallel and perpendicular wire
directions. There is slight deviation between parallel and
perpendicular directions because of lateral vibrations of wire.
Bhattacharya et al. [2] modeled the white layer depth using
Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in WEDM of Die steel.
They found that pulse on time has significant effect on white
layer thickness. They also found that thickness of recast layer
decreases with wire tool offset at trim cutting conditions. They
found that increase with increase in cutting speed recast layer
decreases first and then it increases. Hascalyk et al. [3] have
conducted WEDM experiments on AISI D5 steel in order to
investigate surface integrity aspects. They found that discharge
energy does affect the amount of recast layer, surface roughness
and micro cracking. They found that increase in discharge

ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0 458

 Experimental Investigations on HAZ and Recast Layer in WEDM on Inconel 718

energy increases thickness of recast layer and surface Table 1

properties of inconel 718
roughness. They also found that wire speed and dielectric fluid
pressure are not having any influence on surface integrity Property Value
Tensile strength 1090 MPa
aspects. From literature review it can found that much of Yield strength 915 MPa
research work in WEDM surface integrity has been done on Hardness 331 BHN
steels not on super alloys like Inconel 718. Density 8.2 g/cm3
Antar et al. [4] have shown that using a coated wire, Melting point 1260-1340 oC
Thermal conductivity 11.2 W/m K
surface integrity damage to the work piece can be decreased
compared to the uncoated wire. They have shown that residual 2.2 Experimental Procedure
stress on the machined surface drops from 700 MPa (tensile) to Experiments were conducted on well-polished Inconel 718
150 MPa when using a coated wire instead of a normal wire. work piece of 2 mm thickness. Slots of 10 mm length are made
They have also shown that in terms of recast layer thickness, on the workpieceusing Electronica ECOCUT WEDM (Fig.1).
better results were achieved using the coated wire for both
roughing and trim operations. Aspinwall et al. [5] used a
minimum damage generator technology in order to reduce the
surface damage to the work piece. This minimum damage
generator technology uses a ultra high frequency pulses. They
conducted experiments on both Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718 and
shown that they are getting recast layer thickness not more than
11 µm.
Klocke et al. [6] compared grinding and WEDM based on
fatigue strength and surface integrity of machined Ti6Al4V.
They have shown that as far as the fatigue strength is concerned
EDMed components show better results compared to that of the
grind components. Klink et al. [7] conducted surface integrity
Fig. 1. Wire EDM machine
studies on ASP2023 tool steel. They have studied surface finish,
micro structure, microhardness, residual stress and element 2.3 Experimental Design
distribution. They compared water based and CH- based The experiments were conducted using full factorial design.
dielectrics. Fuzhu et al. [8] conducted experiments to find the The various factors which will affect the surface integrity were
effect of process parameters on surface roughness while found using fish-bone diagram shown below.
machining alloy steel. The machining parameters they
considered are pulse duration, discharge current, sustained pulse
time, pulse interval time, polarity effect, material and dielectric.
They found that surface roughness can be decreased by
decreasing pulse duration and discharge current. Goswami et al.
[9] have done investigation of surface integrity, MRR and wire
wear ratio for WEDM of Nimonic 80A alloy using GRA and
Taguchi method. They found that higher pulse-on time setting
leads to thicker recast layer. At low value of pulse on time and
higher value of pulse off time the wire deposition on the
machined surface is low.
Surface defects owing to thermal damage within the surface
may lead to severe issues during end user applications. The
literature review conducted points out some important areas
Fig. 2. Fish bone diagram for surface integrity in WEDM
where studies have been conducted. In this work an
experimental investigation is done to find the effect of process Based on the fish-bone diagram important and controllable
parameters viz pulse on time, pulse off time and servo voltage factors were identified. Factors which were considered and their
on the surface integrity aspects like recast layer and heat levels are given in Table 2.
affected zone of Inconel 718 workpiece using zinc coated brass Table 2
considered factors and their levels
wire.
Parameter Levels
2. Experimental work Pulse on time (Ton) 10, 18, 26 µs
Pulse off time (Toff) 42, 52, 62 µs
2.1 Workpiece material Servo voltage (V) 20, 40, 60 V
Inconel 718 is selected as the work piece material for this Based on identified factors and levels, full factorial design
work because of its superior properties like high hardness, high was followed for conducting experiments. Total 27 experiments
strength to weight ratio, resistance to high temperature loading, were conducted. Zinc coated brass wire electrode of 250µm
resistance to corrosion. It is having wide applications in diameter was used for making the slots. Deionized water was
chemical, nuclear and automobile industries because of its used as the dielectric medium. The NC code for wire path was
superior mechanical and chemical properties at high written in ELCAM software. The machined work piece is
temperatures. Table 1 shows the physical properties of Inconel shown in Fig. 3.
718 material.

459 ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0

 th th
6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR–2016)
College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA

18 26 26 62 40 31.76
19 16 10 42 60 21.66
20 27 18 42 60 27.8
21 8 26 42 60 32.76
22 6 10 52 60 23.8
23 18 18 52 60 27.8
26 12 26 52 60 28.3
26 26 10 62 60 28.3
26 20 18 62 60 27.8
27 2 26 62 60 31.76

3. Anova analysis
ANOVA means Analysis of Variance. ANOVA, a
statistical tool developed by evolutionary biologist Ronald
Fig. 3. Work piece machined using WEDM Fisher, is used to finds the extent to which two or more differ in
2.4 Recast layer observation an experiment. ANOVA analysis will reveal the significant
factors. In the conducted experiment level of significance was
After machining workpiece was investigated using taken as 0.05. So the model terms whose P value is less than
HITACHI SU6600 Variable Pressure Field Emission Scanning 0.05 is considered as significant. In the ANOVA table,
Electron Microscope (SEM). parameters are coded as: Pulse on time (A), Pulse off time (B)
and Servo voltage (C). Table 4 shows the ANOVA analysis of
the above data.
Table 4
anova analysis
Parameter Sum of Df Mean Square F-Value P-Value
Squares Value
Model 360.9 9 38.99 6.66 0.0016
A 123.6 1 123.66 17.23 0.0007
B 38.6 1 38.6 6.39 0.0330
C 21.66 1 21.66 3.01 0.101
AB 2.61 1 2.61 0.36 0.6616
AC 0.96 1 0.96 0.13 0.7192
BC 31.01 1 31.01 6.33 0.0629
A2 0.68 1 0.68 0.096 0.7626
B2 1.26×10-3 1 1.126×10-3 1.76×10-6 0.9896
C2 132.2 1 132.2 18.66 0.0006

A, B and C2 were found to be significant and BC was also

improving the Adjusted R2. Servo voltage© was also taken into
Fig. 4. Scanning electron microscope and observed recast layer the equation to maintain hierarchy. The regression equation
While observing work piece near to the machined surface a (Eqn 1 & 2) before and after model reduction in coded factors
re-deposited layer is observed. The micro structure of recast are given
layer is quite different from the base material as seen SEM. It is Before model reduction:
consists of voids and micro cracks. Observed recast layer was RL = 33.78 + 2.62×A - 1.66×B - 1.09×C - 0.66×AB +
discontinues and non-uniform. 200x magnification was used to 0.28×AC + 1.61×BC – 0.36×A2 + 0.016B2 – 6.69×C2 (1)
observe the recast layer. Thickness of recast layer is measured R2 = 0.7626 Adj R2 = 0.6060
at different locations and average value is taken for evaluating After model reduction:
results. Observed Recast layer thickness is shown in Fig. 4 and RL = 33.66 + 2.62×A – 1.66×B – 1.09×C + 1.61×BC -
the readings obtained are as in Table 3. 6.69×C2 (2)
Table 3 R2 = 0.7336 Adj R2 = 0.6702
experimental readings The main effects plot (Fig. 5) for recast layer thickness
Sl. No. Run Order T on: µs Toff: µs Voltage: V Recast Layer: µm variation shows that the recast layer increases with increase in
1 26 10 42 20 30.76 pulse on time and decreases with increase in pulse off time. As
2 23 18 42 20 33.76 the time of discharge is increased the molten material gets
3 3 26 42 20 36.26
6 6 10 52 20 23.8
accumulated more on the surface resulting in increased recast
6 19 18 52 20 28.76 layer thickness. As the off time increases the time of no
6 9 26 52 20 31.26 discharge increases which gives more time for the molten
7 7 10 62 20 26.8 material to get removed from the workpiece which results in
8 13 18 62 20 28.8 reduced recast layer thickness. The servo voltage determines the
9 11 26 62 20 30.6
gap between the tool and workpiece. So on increasing the servo
10 1 10 42 40 33.7
11 17 18 42 40 36.26 voltage the gap increases which increases the effectiveness of
12 10 26 42 40 36.2 discharge. Since the discharge occurs properly the recast layer
13 21 10 52 40 36.2 also gets increased. But when the gap gets too high there is a
16 22 18 52 40 37.2 possibility of more energy getting lost in the dielectric which
16 6 26 52 40 38.7 leads to reduction in recast layer thickness at higher servo
16 16 10 62 40 26.3
17 16 18 62 40 28.76
voltages.

ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0 460

 Experimental Investigations on HAZ and Recast Layer in WEDM on Inconel 718

4. Determination of HAZ
Heat affected zone (HAZ) is determined by the variation of
micro hardness near to the machined surface. Due to thermal
softening there is a reduction in micro hardness near to the
machined surface, but as we move away from the machined
surface it is keeps on increasing and at some point it will
become constant. After that there is no variation of micro
hardness. HAZ is determined as depth up to which there is
variation of micro hardness. For measuring micro hardness
Nano-indentation technique is used. Nano-indentation is
performed using Hysitron TI 900 Tribo indentor. This Nano
indentor uses a Berkovich tip for indentation. Indentations were
taken with a spacing of 0.25 µm. Load used is 1000 µN. Nano
indentation determines the mechanical properties like hardness
Fig. 5. Variation of recast layer thickness with process parameters
and elastic modulus by analysing the load displacement data.
Fig. 8 shows the methodology of measuring HAZ.
Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis is done on
recast layer in order to find its chemical composition. It mainly
works on the principle of interaction of X-rays and the sample.
This EDS facility is in built in HITACHI SU6600 SEM. Fig. 7
shows the EDS analysis of the recast layer. EDS analysis (Table
5) reveals that there is deposition of wire electrode material on
machined surface. Since wire is brass (copper + zinc) EDS
analysis shows the presence of copper and zinc.

Fig. 8. Methodology for measuring HAZ

Figure 9 and 10 shows the variation of micro hardness time
for two pulse on time (Ton) values.
60
Micro Hardness (GPa)

50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4
Fig. 6. Recast layer observed in SEM
Distance from machined surface (µm)

Fig. 9. Micro hardness variation for Ton = 10 µs at T off = 62 µs, V = 20 V

60

50
Micro Hardness (GPa)

40

30

20

Fig. 7. EDS chemical analysis result 10

The following table shows the chemical composition of 0
recast layer.
0 1 2 3 4
Table 5
chemical composition of recast layer Distance from machined surface (µm)
Element Weight (%)
Chromium (Cr) 11.76 Fig. 10. Micro hardness variation for Ton = 26 µs at T off = 62 µs, V = 20 V
Manganese (Mn) 2.61
Iron (Fe) 11.30 As pulse on time increases distance from machined surface
Nickel (Ni) 23.02 to reach base material hardness increases, so HAZ increases.
Copper (Cu) 31.79 HAZ for Ton = 10 µs is 1 µm and for Ton = 26µs is 1.5 µm.
Zink (Zn) 19.61
When increasing pulse on time HAZ increases.

461 ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0

 th th
6 International & 27 All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR–2016)
College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA
5. Conclusion
In this work surface integrity aspects of WEDM on Inconel
718 are studied. By observing ANOVA table, it is found that
out of three parameters only pulse on time (Ton) and pulse off
time (Toff) are statistically significant. Servo voltage (V) is not
statistically significant. Since nonlinear terms BC, C2are
statistically significant, servo voltage is also included in the
regression equation. The developed regression equation can be
used to predict the recast layer thickness in the given parameter
range.
From the main effects plot it can be observed that as the
pulse on time increases thickness of recast layer increases, this
is because of increase in discharge energy supply time. As pulse
off time increases thickness of recast layer decreases, this is
because of increase in time for flushing out the meltedmaterial
layer on the surface. EDS analysis shows the presence of wire
material on to the machined surface because due to sparking
erosion of wire electrode also takes place. From the
measurement of micro hardness variation it is evident that there
is presence of HAZ. From the obtained results it is found that
increase in pulse on time (Ton) thickness of HAZ increases.
When pulse on time increases the energy supplied per discharge
increases and it will cause more thermal damage to work piece,
thus increasing the HAZ.
ISBN: 978-93-86256-27-0
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