Development and Analysis of Sustainable and Innovative Surface Finishing Process Through Combined Effects of Ball and Roller Burnishing

Abstract

AbstractThe paper presents a brief review of innovative applications on burnishing, followed by analysis on results obtained during the combined burnishing process, while experimenting on low-carbon steels using Taguchi’s methodologies. The experiments were performed using spindle speed, feed rate and number of passes as the process parameters; while surface roughness and surface micro hardness were the response parameters. The results indicate that roller burnished specimens gave optimum results in terms of surface roughness measurements upto 0.21 Ra (roughness average in µm). The developed novel process had both ball and roller burnishing tools embedded in one single set-up; which improved the utility and enhanced surface hardness as compared to the single-burnished specimens. Improvements in the surface finish with respect to ball burnished surfaces were evidenced; which is further illustrated in the paper. The surfaces thus produced had an added advantage of both roller and ball burnishing process in a single operation, making it chip-less and sustainable process. In the experimental conditions, the best surface finish using combined burnishing tool was of the order of 0.35 Ra (roughness average in µm) and surface micro hardness was 77HRc (hardness Rockwell). The investigations on micro structures produced on the burnished surfaces did not indicate any phase related changes.KeywordsCombined burnishingSurface-roughnessSustainableMicro hardnessMicro structure