Study of Magnetic Abrasive Finishing for AISI321 Stainless Steel

In recent years, magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) has become a reliable unconventional technology among researchers in industries due to need for the surface roughness reduction in metals. In this study, experiments based on influential parameters in the MAF process including rotational speed, working gap, and abrasive particle size were designed and conducted in the full factorial method in order to achieve the optimum parameters in finishing of steel AISI 321. A combination of silicon carbide (SiC), iron (Fe), and oil (SAE40) was utilized as magnetic abrasive tool. Prior to the experiments, the surface of the workpiece was abraded to the lowest value of roughness in order to obtain accurate results through the procedure. In general, the results indicate that the parameters of working gap, rotational speed, and abrasive particle size influence the surface roughness from the most to the least, respectively. Indeed, the minimum surface roughness is obtained through working gap of 1 mm, workpiece rotational speed of 500 rpm, and abrasive particle size of 100 mesh, with 50% improvement compared with initial surface roughness. Finally, the more involved parameters deviate from optimum values, the worse results are obtained compared with optimum acquired consequences.