Experimental Study of Inconel 718 Surface Treatment by Edge Robotic Deburring with Force Control

We present the results of investigations into the application of robotics for deburring and chamfering to a predefined geometric quality. The robotic application was used for a part of the manufacturing process of an aircraft engine detail. Aircraft engine diffuser machining requires manual deburring of many edges. Finishing by hand results in several non-conforming quality details for each diffuser. This paper presents the concept of edge deburring with a controlled force progression pneumatic tool. A specific methodology was used to select and optimise the edge deburring process for robotic chamfering processing to a finer machining tolerance. The investigated machining process included a measurement system for the determination of the manufactured chamfer as a function of contact forces with feed force progression. The investigation work discussed in the paper helped to identify a specific interval of processing parameters, including the contact force and TCP motion velocity at which deburring is effective and a chamfer with specific geometric tolerance is produced. The experimental part of the investigation was conducted at a preset feed force of the high-speed machining file, tool ref. FDB150. The experimental machining sample was made from poorly machinable titanium alloy (Inconel 718), a material applied in the aerospace industry. The machining process optimisation included an approximation of the chamfer width definition points. The resulting function provided a derivative, defining the chamfer value change rate and corresponding to the actual machining tool infeed. The experimental measurement results were compared to the assumed quality indicators, by which a group of suboptimal parameters was defined.