Characterisation of the relationship between surface texture and surface integrity of superalloy components machined by grinding

The surface texture of a machined component is influenced largely by the processing parameters used during machining and hence, there is a relationship between both the formation of the surface texture and surface integrity of the machined component. In the study to be reported in this paper, GH4169, a hard-to-cut superalloy, widely used in aero-engines, was selected for a detailed investigation into the relationship between the surface texture and the component-performance (surface integrity) of the machined components for which a series of grinding experiments with different grinding-wheels and grinding parameter-values was carried out in order to quantitatively analyze variations of the surface roughness with processing parameters. Further, considering that the features of the ground-surfaces measured are of a random nature, statistic properties of the produced surfaces were revealed and characterised with power spectral density function (PSD) and auto-covariance function(ACV) method respectively.