Experimental Investigations into Electrochemical Magnetic Abrasive Machining of Cylindrical Shaped Nonmagnetic Stainless Steel Workpiece

Abstract

This work presents the machining performance of cylindrical electrochemical magnetic abrasive machining (C-EMAM) for high efficiency machining of cylindrical surfaces. Experiments were carried out on self-developed C-EMAM setup to explore the performance of the process during machining of nonmagnetic stainless steel cylindrical workpiece using unbonded magnetic abrasive particles. The performance of this process is evaluated in terms of material removal (MR) and surface roughness (Ra). The effect of various process variables viz. electrolytic current, magnetic flux density, and rotational speed of workpiece on process performance were investigated. It is observed that the electrochemical process has major contribution in MR, whereas magnetic abrasive machining helps in reduction in Ra due to higher abrasion-assisted passivation particularly at peaks of surface profile. In the C-EMAM process, MR is observed to be increased by 500% to 1,800% as compared to the magnetic abrasive machining (MAM) process. At constant magnetic flux density, with 200% increase in electrolytic current, the MR increases by 172%, whereas Ra reduces by 50% with respect to 0.5 A current. This process has higher machining efficiency particularly at high value of electrolytic current and high rotational speed.