Theoretical analysis of a novel in-situ magnetorheological honing process for finishing the internal surface of tubular workpieces

Abstract

The finished internal surface of tubular components enhances the resistance to corrosion, wear, and friction. The tubular components such as cylindrical dies, cylindrical moulds, pneumatic as well as hydraulic cylinders, and cylindrical-barrels need a fine finished internal surface. Generally, the internal surface finishing of the tubular workpieces is performed by traditional honing. When the same cylindrical workpiece surface needs to be further super finished, it requires another advanced finishing tool and setup. Therefore, it is expensive and labour-intensive due to the use of separate tools and setups for traditional and superfinishing on the same internal tubular workpiece surface. Also, there are chances of the end product to be faulty due to the change of tool and setup. To sort out such issues, a novel in-situ magnetorheological honing (MRH) process is introduced. Using this process, the traditional honing as well as advanced MRH processes are performed on the internal surface of a tubular workpiece with a single in-situ MRH tool at a single process setup. Since this is a novel process, the theoretical study has been performed in the present work to predict the finishing performance of this process. The theoretical study of the material removal rate in a traditional honing, magnetic field induced by the magnet of the in-situ MRH tool, and the surface roughness model obtained in MR finishing of this process have been performed. The theoretical study is confirmed with the experimental results obtained in this work. The surface finish with the traditional honing is achieved to 653 nm from the initial machined surface roughness of 2520 nm in 40 min of finishing. The final surface finish obtained with 40 min of MR finishing in the present work is 90 nm from the initial traditionally honed surface with a roughness value of 653 nm. The significant improvement in the surface finish is also visually analyzed with the scanning electron micrographs.