A newly developed media for magnetic abrasive finishing process: Material removal behavior and finishing performance

Abstract

Magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) is one of the most important final machining processes, and the performances of finishing media play an important role in the finishing effects and efficiency. In this study, a new magnetic finishing media with semi-solid state was presented and prepared, and finishing setup for the inner or outer rotary surface was developed. In order to determine the optimum angle between N pole and S pole, simulation was performed using ANSYS Maxwell 14.0. Mathematical modelling of the material removal ratio (MRR) was built as a function of magnetic pressure and velocity based on Archard wear model, and the developed model predicted the MRR as a function of magnetic flux density, mass ratio, rotational speed of magnetic poles, rotational speed of cam, and diameter of abrasive particles and ferromagnetic particles. The material removal coefficient of the predicted model was determined. The model was validated by experiment, and the relative error between the experiment value and the theoretical value was 4.51%. Finishing experiments of main parameters on surface roughness Ra and MRR were examined. Experimental results indicate that the percentage change % ΔRa in surface roughness Ra and the material removal amount increase with the increase of the rotational speed, the mesh number of the abrasive particles, and the mass ratio of base polymer, ferromagnetic phase and abrasive phase. For the 6061 aluminum alloy tube, the maximum improvement in surface roughness Ra is 96.67%, and the maximum MRR is 1.916 mg/s.