Effect of Burnishing Process on Surface Characteristics of Particulate Reinforced Iron-base Composites

This paper presents an investigation on the surface characteristics of NbC particulate reinforced iron-base composites after burnished by a ceramic ball burnishing apparatus. The effect of relative parameters on surface roughness, surface micro-hardness and depth of hardening layer of composites is studied. The results show that after burnishing process the surface roughness of composites samples sharply decreases, and the surface micro-hardness increases relatively, and the depth of hardening layer accesses 0.12 similar to 0.16mm. Also, material's burnishing mechanism is discussed, and the process parameters are optimized.