Study of magnetic abrasive finishing in freeform surface polishing

Polishing is the last procedure of the free-form surface workpiece manufacturing and its surface finishing quality affects directly the quality, life-span, cost and price. Magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) is one of the advanced finishing processes, which produces a high level of surface quality. The technology is researched and applied just in recent years and it has good effect at the complex surface product manufacturing due to its flexibility and self-adaptability. Based on research about the theory and characteristic of magnetic abrasive finishing, this study employed magnetic abrasive finishing to conduct freeform surface polishing of stainless material operations. The examinations were performed considering the effects of magnetic field, spindle revolution, working gap and abrasive mesh number. The results revealed that MAF is a highly efficient way of workpiece surface finishing.