Study of the Polishing Characteristics by Abrasive Flow Machining with a Rotating Device

Abstract

Since only uni-direction motion is produced by traditional abrasive flow machining (AFM), so the polishing effects of the inner hole is not easy to achieve uniform roughness of the whole surface after polishing. Therefore, in this study, a rotating device with a DC servo motor was set up in the AFM to increase the tangential forces on the machining surface, and therefore, improve the uniform surface roughness and polishing efficiency. The rotating device was designed by a group of transmission gear set and a DC servo motor to create a rotational finishing path for the abrasive medium. The rotational motion of an abrasive can create different tangential forces on the working surface, inducing a more complex polishing path than that of traditional AFM. In addition to rotational speed, a servo motor can also change rotation directions in one working process, causing an abrasive medium to create many irregular finishing paths in the AFM. The experimental results showed that the surface roughness of the workpiece was significantly decreased with an increase in the rotational speed. Additionally, the results also showed that the surface roughness (SR) of the inner hole decreased from 0.61 μm Ra to 0.082 μm Ra after 20 machining cycles, the surface roughness improvement rate reached 87% at 15 rpm rotational speed, by applying a 1.5:1 silicone gel/abrasive concentration ratio and #60 abrasive mesh in the experiments. This study created excellent polishing efficiency by using a servo rotational device with AFM to produce good surface quality.

Review of surface roughness and material removing rate on abrasive flow machining process

“…6. Shows Abrasive flow machining process with rotation mechanism and control system [6] , 01032 (2024) MATEC Web of Conferences https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/202439201032 392 ICMED 2024…”

Understanding the Mechanism of Abrasive-Based Finishing Processes Using Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Simulation

“…Hardened steel Removing material from the surface of the material using sliding of abrasive particles of another material 0.184 µm Can deal with complex components [26,28,30] Elastic Emission Machining (EEM) silicon removing the material atom by atom with no cracks, deformation, or deep indentations Less than 0.0005 µm Removing material in loose abrasive-based machining [28,30,31] Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) silicon…”

“…It is not easy to perform experiments to analyze each factor's effect in a short time. To find the optimum parameter, the simulations of CFD were created [7,26,84].…”

“…The problem associated with AFM is its high cost and "low material removal rate MRR," which makes it laborious and strenuous. AFM processes of finishing techniques have also emerged recently to tackle the challenges and issues such as processes requiring high machining time [23][24][25][26]. Figure 1 below illustrates the "loose abrasive-based machining" (LAM) process.…”

2017A Alloy surface layer after flow burnishing with glass microspheres

“…The results of AFM depend on the type of abrasive material and medium, grain concentration in the paste, grain size, number of working cycles, pressure, and flow velocity [17][18][19][20]. Several variants of the classical AFM have been developed; for example, magnetic [21][22][23], rotary [24,25] and hybrid AFM [26][27][28]. Their comprehensive characteristics such as parameters, results, and applications have been presented in several studies [29][30][31][32].…”