Finishing of additively manufactured stainless steel features by the eco-friendly electrolyte: Plasma and surface interaction science

Abstract

Many industries, including the chemical, food, medical, and aerospace sectors, use complex-shaped components fabricated by additive manufacturing. The usage of additively manufactured components in end-user applications is challenging due to their higher surface roughness. Finishing processes are necessary to reduce the surface roughness. Electrolytic hot plasma polishing is a newly developed finishing process. For this process, an eco-friendly electrolytic solution is prepared and used to finish any shape of the component that is to be conductive. Salts and distilled water are used while preparing the eco-friendly electrolytic solution, which is used to finish stainless steel. Initially, the prepared solution was used to finish cast stainless steel components, and subsequently, it was employed for finishing additively manufactured stainless steel components. Voltage–current characteristics of the cast and additively manufactured components resulted in a similar pattern. As a result, the range of the input process parameters for cast components was chosen for the input of central composite rotatable design to finish the additively manufactured stainless steel components. The surface roughness of additively manufactured stainless steel features was reduced to 95.6 % of the original surface roughness of 12.45 μm. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine surface morphology and material removal mechanisms.