Analyses of rate of material removal during magnetic abrasive finishing of stainless steel SS304 using RSM method

Abstract

New engineering materials having extraordinary properties are being developed to meet the demand rising from increase in world population. Application of conventional machining methods has been limited due to high cost and longer processing time. Magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) is a non-conventional superfine finishing process in which magnetic abrasive particles are actuated on a workpiece via magnetic forces. In the present work, a “response surface methodology (RSM)” optimization approach was applied to investigate the influence of process parameters on the rate of material removal from the workpiece. The results of the ROMR regression show that the value of ROMR increases with decreasing GAP and machining time and increasing rotational speed, abrasive quantity, and abrasive grit size. It is concluded from the results and discussions that rate of material removal was significantly affected by GAP (A), rotational speed of poles (B), machining time (E), Interactivitys between GAP (A) & quantity of abrasives(C), GAP(A) & grit size(D), GAP(A) & machining time(E), rotational speed of pole (B) & machining time (E), quantity of abrasives (C) & machining time (E).The process yields best results when GAP (A) = 3 mm, rotational speed of poles (B) = 500 rpm, quantity of abrasives (C) = 14g, abrasive grit size (D) = 128 µm and machining time (E) = 30 min for maximum change in hardness. The maximum rate of material removal (ROMR) obtained in this work is 1.333 mg/min.