Investigation of roller burnishing process on aluminium 63400 material

Abstract

Burnishing, a plastic deformation process, is becoming more popular as a super finishing process. The selection of the burnishing parameters to reduce the surface roughness and to increase the surface hardness is especially crucial because of the non-linear characteristic of the burnishing parameter. This paper deals with the results of an experimental program to study the influence of different burnishing conditions on both surface roughness and hardness: namely, burnishing force, feed, step-over and number of passes. Mathematical models are presented for predicting the surface roughness and hardness and of aluminium 63400 caused by roller burnishing. The response surface methodology is used to optimise the burnishing parameters. The optimum surface roughness and its surface hardness are 0.1468 μm and 43.0147 HRC, respectively. The optimum burnishing parameters are: burnishing force 1200 N; feed 200 mm/min; step over 3 mm; and number of pass 2. The impacts ofburnishing parameters on surface characteristics are investigated. Scanning electron microscopy examinations of the burnishing process are also investigated.

Keywords:

• Roller burnishing
• CNC machining centre
• super finishing
• empirical model
• response surface methodology
• optimisation technique
• SEM examination

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M R Stalin John

M. R. Stalin John received his Master in Production Engineering in 1997. Current he is pursuing his PhD, focusing on super finishing of ferrous and non-ferrous materials using the burnishing process. His current research interests include super finishing using the burnishing process, machining of composite materials, parallel manipulator and machine vision systems. He has published three research papers in international journals.

B K Vinayagam

B. K. Vinayagam completed a 5-year integrated graduate program in Machine Tool Design and Production at the Voroshilovgrad Machine Building Institute, Russia, and a PhD program in Flexible Manufacturing Systems in Voronez Polytechnic Institute, Russia. His professional career started in a research and development laboratory related to heavy vehicles under Ministry of Defence, and then 14 years in the Tata Iron and Steel Company in various positions. Currently, he is working as a Professor in Mechatronics Department of SRM University, India. He is involved in different consultancy and developmental projects, and has published 33 research papers in international and five in national journals. He has also organised as well as participated in several national and international conferences.