Study of Ball Burnishing Process on the Surface Roughness and Microhardness of AZ91D Alloy

Abstract

Ball burnishing is a simple, rapid, cost-effective and superfinishing process which is generally carried out to better the surface integrity of mechanical parts. The aim of this paper is to investigate the optimum surface roughness and microhardness of AZ91D magnesium alloy by utilizing ball burnishing process. The effects of the number of passes, burnishing force, burnishing speed and feed rate were researched on surface roughness and microhardness of AZ91D magnesium alloy. Taguchi L18 orthogonal array was applied to plan the experiments of ball burnishing process. The optimum burnishing parameter was determined based on signal-to-noise ratio. The best surface roughness of 0.336 μm was achieved by the number of passes: 2, burnishing force 250 N, burnishing speed: 200 rpm, feed rate: 0.1 mm/min. The best microhardness of 102.7 HV was achieved by the number of passes 2, burnishing force 250 N, burnishing speed: 600 rpm and feed rate: 0.25 mm/min.