Study on magnetic abrasive finishing of AlSi10Mg alloy prepared by selective laser melting

Abstract

Selective laser melting (SLM) technology is playing an increasingly important role in today’s manufacturing industry. However, the surface quality of SLM samples is relatively poor and cannot be directly applied to industrial production. Therefore, this paper focuses on the post-treatment process of SLM AlSi10Mg alloy. First, the rough machining is performed by a grinding process (GP), and then, the magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) is used for finish machining. The experiment results show that the combination of GP and MAF can effectively reduce the surface roughness and improve the surface quality of SLM AlSi10Mg alloy. The GP reduced the surface roughness to drop from 7 μm (after SLM forming) to about 0.6 μm, and the rough surface with defects such as spheroids and pits evolved into the fine surface with scratches and pores. The MAF reduced the surface roughness to a minimum of 0.155 μm, which resulted in excellent surface morphology. The surface hardness after the GP was higher, and the MAF reduced the hardness of the GP surface.