Study of Magnetic Abrasive Finishing using Mechanically Alloyed Magnetic Abrasives

The finishing characteristics of mechanically alloyed magnetic abrasives used in cylindrical magnetic abrasive finishing (MAP) are presented in this study. Mechanical alloying is a solid state powder processing technique, where the powder particles are subjected to impact by the balls in a high energy ball mill or attritor at room temperature. After the process, fine magnetic abrasives are obtained in which the abrasive particles are attached to the base metal matrix without any bonding material. The magnetic particle used in the magnetic abrasive production is iron powder and the abrasive is aluminium oxide. Magnetic abrasives play the role of cutting tools in MAP, which is emerging as an important non-conventional machining process. The experiments performed on stainless steel tubes examine the effects of varying the quantity of magnetic abrasives, magnetic flux density, speed of rotation of the workpiece and amount of lubricant. The surface roughness measurements demonstrate the effects of the abrasive behaviour on the surface modification. The surface roughness was analysed in terms of percentage improvement in surface finish (PISF). The obtained maximum PISF was 40 % and the minimum surface roughness was 0.63 mu m Ra.