Title: Experimental investigations and parametric analysis of magnetic field assisted abrasive finishing of SS316L

Authors: T.C. Kanish; P. Kuppan; S. Narayanan; S. Denis Ashok

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore-632014, Tamil Nadu, India ' School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore-632014, Tamil Nadu, India ' School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore-632014, Tamil Nadu, India ' School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore-632014, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Magnetic field assisted abrasive finishing (MFAAF) process is one of the advanced finishing processes, in which the cutting force is primarily controlled by the magnetic field. In the present work, an experimental investigation has been carried out to study and predict the effect of process parameters viz., voltage supplied to the electromagnet, machining gap, rotational speed of electromagnet and size of SiC abrasive particles on percentage improvement in surface finish (%ΔR_a) and material removal (MR). The austenitic stainless steel grade 316L, non-magnetic, surgical implant material is selected for the experimental study. The experiments are planned based on Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array. Using the experimental data, regression models were developed for predicting the %ΔR_a and MR. From the experimental results, it is found that the prediction error for %ΔR_a and MR using the proposed regression model is 4.16% and 6.96% respectively. The developed regression models were used to study the effect of process parameters on %ΔR_a and MR. The surface topography of the magnetic abrasive finished surfaces was analysed using scanning electron microscopy and presented in this work.

Keywords: magnetic field assisted abrasive finishing; MFAAF; surface roughness; SNR; signal to noise ratio; analysis of variance; ANOVA; regression analysis; SS 316L; surface quality; voltage; machining gap; electromagnet rotational speed; SiC abrasive particles; silicon carbide; surface finish; surface quality; material removal rate; MRR; austenitic stainless steel; surgical implant materials; Taguchi methods; orthogonal arrays.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2015.066782

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2015 Vol.29 No.1/2, pp.78 - 95

Received: 05 Mar 2014
Accepted: 03 Jun 2014
Published online: 05 Jan 2015 *

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