Drilling Additively Manufactured vs Wrought Metals: What Changes in Deep Hole Drilling
I started drilling additively manufactured metal parts expecting them to be harder than wrought. The porous, layered structure looked like it would eat tools. The data surprised me. AM metals — specifically laser powder bed fusion Inconel 718 — machine differently than wrought. Tool wear is lower, cutting forces are lower, and the wear mechanism shifts from adhesive to abrasive. Understanding these differences changes how you set up parameters and select tooling. ...