INVESTIGATIONS ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SURFACE FINISH AND HARDNESS OF THE WORK MATERIAL WITH BURNISHING PROCESS

Abstract

Burnishing is a process of finishing metal by compressing its outer surface layer by the application of highly polished and hardened tool. Burnishing, being an application of cold working process, improves the surface finish and hardness of the metal components. The facts already reported are mainly on the burnishing process employing a diamond tip tool. Literature survey revealed the data on the burnishing with diamond point tool and no data on burnishing with hard steel tool have been observed. An attempt has therefore been made to explore the suitability of hardened and finished steel balls on structural mild steel work material adopting such variables as speed, feed, load and ball diameter.