Investigation of material removal variations during abrasive flow machining

Abstract

Abrasive flow machining (AFM) is an abrasive machining process used to machine internal geometries like mould and die in terms of deburring and finishing the surface with high performance. Depending on the respective machining task, different processing force and material removal rates were needed. An experimental research had been carried out by measuring the radial forces under different conditions during the AFM. Based on findings in the force changing and processing circles, studies about material removal rate have been reported. This paper presented results that the radial force on machining surface plays a very important role in AFM. Structure steel 45# was used for the investigation. Radial force increasing was beneficial to improvement of the removal efficiency and processing quality. The ability of material removal gradually weakened as the numbers of processing cycle increases, but the plastic deformation still played a role in reducing the surface roughness.