Machining is a versatile process which is widely used in various industrial sectors, especially when it comes to the production of parts with high dimensional accuracy and a high-quality surface finish. Milling process is the most used in the machining since it is a flexible process in the production of dissimilar parts. The Inconel 718 displays high mechanical strength at high temperatures, high hardness, and low thermal conductivity, which makes this material difficult to machine, inducing premature wear on cutting tools. The use of coated tools has been verified to optimize and improve the performance of the milling process and to produce parts with superior surface quality. The improvement of the milling processes applied to the Inconel 718 is quite relevant, mainly from an industrial point of view, due to its wide variety of applications in areas such as the aerospace and aeronautics industries. Based on this, the objective of this work was to carry out a comparative analysis, varying the machining parameters, regarding the wear behavior of end mills coated with TiAlYN, deposited by the HiPIMS sputtering process, during the machining of Inconel 718. The compared parameters were cutting speed, cutting length and feed rate. Wear analysis was performed using scanning electron microscopy, where it was possible to quantify the wear and identify the wear mechanisms involved in each machined condition. The machined surface was also evaluated in order to verify the resulting roughness and to relate it to the type of wear present in the tool and the machining condition used. The most common wear mechanisms were observed and determined, namely, abrasion, material adhesion and adhesive wear. The results obtained in this work can be used to optimize the milling process and surface finish of Inconel 718, seeking to improve the performance of cutting tools.

Keywords: Machining, Milling, Tool wear, Wear mechanisms, Coated tools, TiAlYN, Inconel 718.