Enhancement of surface integrity by cryogenic diamond burnishing toward the improved functional performance of the components

Abstract

17-4 precipitation-hardenable (PH) stainless steel is one of the widely used materials in various applications of engineering practices owing to their excellent corrosion resistance and high strength. The components such as automotive body, aerospace compressor blades, turbine blades and molds demand higher load carrying capacity and improved fatigue strength, which is possible to achieve by surface severe plastic deformation. Diamond burnishing process is an appropriate technique to produce such components which improves the surface integrity characteristics of the material. This article presents a comprehensive examination of the surface integrity of cryogenic diamond burnished 17-4 PH stainless steel using a novel diamond burnishing tool. The impact of diamond burnishing control factors on subsurface microhardness, surface roughness, surface hardness, surface topography, residual stress and surface morphology has been analyzed. The optimal control factor setting ensures the least surface roughness of 0.03 µm by the application of one factor at a time approach. Cryogenic diamond burnished surface achieves the exceptional surface finish and the surface hardness in tool-tip of 8 mm and 6 mm, respectively. The maximum surface hardness of 413 HV was attained using 6-mm tool-tip diameter. The subsurface microhardness improvement of 2% and 4% has been observed while using a tool-tip diameter of 6 mm in contrast to 8 mm and 10 mm. Compressive residual stresses have been generated at the top surface layer of the specimen. The attained experimental results prove that cryogenic diamond burnishing can be successfully applied to 17-4 PH stainless steel to enhance its surface integrity characteristics.