Experimental investigations and parametric analysis of magnetic field assisted abrasive finishing of SS316L

Abstract

Magnetic field assisted abrasive finishing (MFAAF) process is one of the advanced finishing processes, in which the cutting force is primarily controlled by the magnetic field. In the present work, an experimental investigation has been carried out to study and predict the effect of process parameters viz., voltage supplied to the electromagnet, machining gap, rotational speed of electromagnet and size of SiC abrasive particles on percentage improvement in surface finish (%ΔRa) and material removal (MR). The austenitic stainless steel grade 316L, non–magnetic, surgical implant material is selected for the experimental study. The experiments are planned based on Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array. Using the experimental data, regression models were developed for predicting the %ΔRa and MR. From the experimental results, it is found that the prediction error for %ΔRa and MR using the proposed regression model is 4.16% and 6.96% respectively. The developed regression models were used to study the effect of process parameters on %ΔRa and MR. The surface topography of the magnetic abrasive finished surfaces was analysed using scanning electron microscopy and presented in this work.