Investigation of the surface integrity characteristics in wire electrical discharge machining of Inconel 617

The wire electrical discharge machining is one of the best options for machining of high strength materials like Inconel 617. In this study, the effects of wire electrical discharge machining input parameters, such as pulse current and pulse duration on micro-hardness of machined surfaces and subsurface and also density of created surface cracks were investigated. Also the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy technique was used to elemental analysis of machined workpiece. The results of this study showed that increasing pulse current and pulse duration, decreases surface micro-hardness while subsurface micro-hardness is increased by increasing pulse duration. Also subsurface micro-hardness is increased by increasing pulse current up to 10 A, but after that the subsurface micro-hardness is decreased. According to the results, the micro-hardness of workpiece is reduced by increasing the distance from the top surface. Also the surface crack density is increased by increasing pulse current and pulse duration first, but it is decreased by increasing more of these two parameters.