Surface state of Inconel 718 ultrasonic shot peened: Effect of processing time,material and quantity of shot balls and distance from radiating surface to sample

Plates of Inconel 718 in precipitated state have been subjected to ultrasonic shot peening (USP), varying the distance from the radiating surface of the booster to the sample, the processing time and the material (WC/Co and steel) and number of shot balls, in order to study the effect of these parameters on the final state generated by the USP process. A change to more compressive residual stresses at the surface of the treated parts has been measured in all cases. For higher USP processing times and/or lower booster-sample distances, the degree of plastic deformation in the treated material increases, leading to a change to more compressive surface stresses and a higher density of impact marks in the treated surface. The same occurs when WC/Co balls are used instead of steel balls. The tendency to more compressive stresses reaches a saturation level after a certain processing time, when the system is not able to force the material to continue with more plastic deformation. If a higher quantity of balls is used, there will be less impacts of the shots with the surface and their energy will be lower (due to losses of energy after inelastic collisions). This diminishes the effect of the impacts in introducing compressive stresses and leads to less and shallower impact marks in the treated surface.