Hardness Effects on Abrasive Flow Machining

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

Abrasive flow machining (AFM) is a nontraditional machining process that was developed in the USA in the 1960s.AFM can be described as pressurized media passing through the surfaces to reach the desired surface quality.There are mainly two types of abrasive flow machines according to flow of media: one-way and two-way.The media consists of a type of polymeric carrier and abrasive particles that are SiC, Al2O3, diamond, etc.AFM is used to deburr, polish, radius, and remove recast layers.Applications of AFM include the finishing of extrusion dies, medical implants and aerospace components.AFM can be successfully applied to different kinds of engineering materials from soft to hard, ferrous to nonferrous, and also metallic to nonmetallic.With the use of AFM, excellent surface finishes and close geometric tolerances can be attained economically.The media in the AFM process is used to polish difficult-to-reach areas, and to follow complex geometries and microholes.The success of the AFM process depends on a number of process parameters that can be classified into three groups: AFM parameters, polishing media parameters and workpiece parameters.The AFM parameters are pressure, flow speed, number of cycles and machining time.The polishing media parameters are viscosity, temperature, abrasive material, mesh size and its concentration.The work-piece parameters are mainly the shape, the material hardness, the premachining process and surface texture orientation.Rhodes [1] studied AFM processes and evaluated process parameters such as pressure, speed of the flow, volume of the media, types of abrasive, which affects the polishing of work pieces.Jain and Adsul