Enhancement in Microhardness of Free Machining Brass in Ball Burnishing

Abstract

The burnishing process is becoming an attractive way among post-machining, metal finishing techniques due to its excellent features. The burnishing process carried out with ball or roller, smooth out the protrusions due to the plastic deformation and increases the surface texture. This paper presents the results of three ball burnishing conditions carried out on cylindrical free machining brass components. Influence of abrasive particles (abrasive assisted burnishing, AAB) during burnishing is investigated and compared with the burnishing carried out without (plain burnishing, PB) and with-coolant (lubricated burnishing, LB) conditions. The response surface methodology (RSM) is used to optimize the microhardness in terms of four process parameters. Result obtained indicates that the microhardness of the pre-machined surfaces increases by 12-29 percent. The AAB results in 141.67 percent higher microhardness than the PB and 41 percent more than the LB condition.