Improvement of Surface Roughness Quality for Stainless Steel 420 Plate Using Magnetic Abrasive Finishing Method

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out to improve the surface roughness quality of the stainless steel 420 using magnetic abrasive finishing method (MAF). Four independent operation parameters were studied (working gap, coil current, feed rate, and table stroke), and their effects on the MAF process were introduced. A rotating coil electromagnet was designed and implemented to use with plane surfaces. The magnetic abrasive powder used was formed from 33%Fe and 67% Quartz of (250µm mesh size). The lubricant type SAE 20W was used as a binder for the powder contents. Taguchi method was used for designing the experiments and the optimal values of the selected parameters were found. An empirical equation representing the relation between surface roughness with operation parameters have been achieved.

Keywords

• Magnetic abrasive finishing
• MAF
• abrasive powder
• surface roughness
• inductor
• taguchi method
• orthogonal arrays
• electromagnetic poles