Study of vibration frequency and abrasive particle size during cylindrical magnetic abrasive finishing

Abstract

In modern manufacturing industries, the requirement for high-precision surface quality is increasing drastically. To achieve such kind of precision accuracy for surface finish, the Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF) process has been developed. In MAF, the workpiece is kept between two poles of magnet and the magnetic field is controlled by varying the excitation current to the electromagnetic coil. The working gap between the workpiece and the magnetic poles is filled with the magnetic abrasives, which are composed of the ferromagnetic particles and the abrasive powder. In this study, the new method for cylindrical MAF is designed and tested. To improve the finishing efficiency of the process, the magnetic poles are vibrated. The experimental investigations of the different input parameters such as frequency of vibration and abrasive particle size during MAF are also discussed. This study concludes that the frequency of vibration and the abrasive particle size are the two critical parameters and these must be chosen properly to get the higher finishing characteristics.