ABRASIVE FLOW MACHINING WITH ADDITIONAL CENTRIFUGAL FORCE APPLIED TO THE MEDIA

Abstract

Abrasive flow machining (AFM) is one of the important non-traditional metal finishing technologies which was introduced during the late 1960s. The process has found applications in a wide range of fields such as aerospace, defence, surgical and tool manufacturing industries. Recently, an effort has been made towards the performance improvement of this process by applying centrifugal force on the abrasive media with the use of a rotating centrifugal force generating (CFG) rod introduced in the workpiece passage. The results have been encouraging. The present paper discusses the results of changing the parameters like shape and rotational speed of CFG rod, extrusion pressure, number of process cycles and abrasive grit size. The results indicate that all the input variables have significant effect on the response parameters, which for the present study were taken as material removal and surface roughness. An analytical model is proposed for the velocity and the angle at which abrasive particles attack the workpiece surface in the process.