Study of Process Parameters on Cutting Forces in Meso-Scale Milling of Inconel 718 Alloy Danyal ZAHID a, 1 , Najam ul QADIR a , Syed Husain Imran JAFFERY a , Mushtaq KHAN a , Shahid Ikram Ullah BUTT a , Riaz MUHAMMAD b ,Adil RAUF a a School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology Islamabad. b NESCOM, Islamabad Abstract. Nickel-based alloys are widely used in the aerospace industry, nuclear reactors and the automotive industry. These alloys exhibit excellent physical and chemical properties at high temperatures. However, nickel-based alloys are difficult to machine materials with high hardness and low thermal conductivity, which results in high cutting forces during machining. Additionally, increasing demand for meso- scale components in the industry has opened a door for research in this field. This paper focuses on meso-scale milling of Inconel 718 alloy. Aiming at the problem of high cutting forces, meso-scale milling experiments of Inconel 718 alloy were conducted. Due to its high strength and work-hardening characteristics, proper tool coating and process parameters should be selected. In this work, TiAlN, TiSiN, and nACo coatings were selected. Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array was employed for conducting experiments in a dry environment. In this paper, feed per tooth, cutting velocity, depth of cut, and tool coatings are considered as input parameters, and their effects on cutting forces are analysed through the statistical technique of analysis of variance (ANOVA) to figure out the most important process parameters. Keywords. Meso-scale milling, Taguchi, ANOVA. 1. Introduction Miniaturized goods with dimensions ranging from a few microns to a few millimeters have increased rapidly over the previous decade [1]. In meso-scale milling, the diameter of the cutting tool is in the range of 1mm to 5mm. [2, 3]. Inconel 718 is a nickel-chromium alloy with excellent strength and corrosion resistance at high temperatures, which is widely used among nickel based alloys. [4]. Inconel 718 also possesses outstanding mechanical qualities at high temperatures, allowing it to be employed in a variety of applications such as aviation, automotive, and biomedical [4–6].Inconel 718 alloy is difficult to machine alloy with high cutting force, hardness, and low thermal conductivity .Severe tool failure occurs in cutting Inconel 718 alloy due to high cutting forces [7 ,8]. 1 Corresponding Author. dzahid.pg@smme.edu.pk Advances in Manufacturing Technology XXXV M. Shafik and K. Case (Eds.) © 2022 The authors and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). doi:10.3233/ATDE220581 143