Simultaneous improvement of microgeometry and surface quality of spur and straight bevel gears by abrasive flow finishing process

This article reports on influence of extrusion pressure, abrasive particle size and volumetric concentration on simultaneous reduction of surface roughness and microgeometry errors of spur and straight bevel gear by abrasive flow finishing (AFF) process. A vertical configured experimental apparatus was developed for two-way AFF and developed fixtures for finishing gears. Experimental investigations were conducted to identify optimum parametric combination, using response surface methodology, based on Box–Behnken design approach. Results revealed that higher values of abrasive particle size and volumetric concentration yield more percentage decrease in surface roughness and microgeometry error. Roughness profile, bearing area curve, microhardness, surface morphology, and wear resistance of the gear having best quality finishing were studied. Surface morphology analysis of the flank regions of the best finished spur and straight bevel gears found them to be smooth and free from cracks and burrs. Reciprocating wear test results revealed higher wear resistance of the AFF finished gears as compared to the unfinished gears. AFF also enhanced microhardness of the finished gears, which would enhance their operating performance and service life. This study shows that AFF is a flexible, economical, productive, easy to operate, and sustainable nontraditional process for precision finishing of gear that can simultaneously improve microgeometry, surface finish, microhardness, surface morphology, wear resistance, and residual stresses of the finished gears. Gear manufacturers and users will be benefited by the outcome of this study. JEL codes: C00, C20

An overview of magnetorheological polishing fluid applied in nano-finishing of components

Surface quality is the most crucial factor affecting the product lifespan and performance of any component. Most earlier technologies display accuracy in the micrometre or submicrometre range, surface roughness in the nanometre range, and almost no surface defects in the production of optical, mechanical and electronic parts. Such finishing methods incorporate a magnetic field to control the finishing forces using magnetorheological fluid as the polishing medium. Magnetorheological fluid (MR) consists of ferromagnetic and abrasive particles. It is a type of modern intelligent fluid. An optimum selection of magnetorheological fluid constituents and their volume concentration plays an essential role for the ultra-fine finishing of newly developed engineering products. Rheological characteristics of magnetorheological fluid can change rapidly and effortlessly with the support of an activated magnetic field. Traditional finishing methods are comparatively inferior in finishing complex freeform surfaces, due to the lack of controlling finishing forces and limitations of polishing tool movement over the complex freeform contour of the components. There are different types of processes based on the magnetorheological fluid including magnetorheological finishing, magnetorheological abrasive flow finishing, rotational magnetorheological abrasive flow finishing and ball end magnetorheological finishing. This article discusses the development of different types of magnetorheological-fluid-based finishing processes and their modes of operation. The MR fluid devices developed in the last decade are thoroughly reviewed for their working principles, characteristics and applications. This article also highlights the study of rheological characterization of magnetorheological fluid and its applications in different polishing methods appropriate for finishing various complex freeform components.

Optimization of Abrasive Flow Nano-Finishing Processes by Adopting Artificial Viral Intelligence

This work deals with the optimization of crucial process parameters related to the abrasive flow machining applications at micro/nano-levels. The optimal combination of abrasive flow machining parameters for nano-finishing has been determined by applying a modified virus-evolutionary genetic algorithm. This algorithm implements two populations: One comprising the hosts and one comprising the viruses. Viruses act as information carriers and thus they contribute to the algorithm by boosting efficient schemata in binary coding to facilitate both the arrival at global optimal solutions and rapid convergence speed. Three cases related to abrasive flow machining have been selected from the literature to implement the algorithm, and the results corresponding to them have been compared to those available by the selected contributions. It has been verified that the results obtained by the virus-evolutionary genetic algorithm are not only practically viable, but far more promising compared to others as well. The three cases selected are the traditional “abrasive flow finishing,” the “rotating workpiece” abrasive flow finishing, and the “rotational-magnetorheological” abrasive flow finishing.

Optimal parameters of abrasive flow finishing for hip joint implants

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is one of the most well-known orthopedic surgeries in the world which involves the substitution of the natural hip joint by prostheses. In this process, the surface roughness of the femoral head plays a pivotal role in the performance of hip joint implants. In this regard, the nano-finishing of the femoral head of the hip joint implants to achieve a uniform surface roughness with the lowest standard deviation is a major challenge in the conventional and advanced finishing processes. In the present study, the inverse replica fixture technique was used for automatic finishing in the abrasive flow finishing (AFF) process. For this aim, an experimental setup of the AFF process was designed and fabricated. After the tests, experimental data were modeled and optimized to achieve the minimum surface roughness in the ASTM F138 (SS 316L) femoral head of the hip joint through the use of response surface methodology (RSM). The results confirmed uniform surface roughness up to the range of 0.0203 µm with a minimum standard deviation of 0.00224 for the femoral head. Moreover, the spherical shape deviation of the femoral head was achieved in the range of 7 µm. The RSM results showed a 99.71% improvement in the femoral head surface roughness (0.0007) µm under the optimized condition involving the extrusion pressure of 9.10 MPa, the number of finishing cycles of 95, and SiC abrasive mesh number of 1000.

Investigation on Precision Finishing of Helical Gears Using Newly Developed Silicon Carbide Mixed Styrene Butadiene Media and Abrasive Flow Finishing Process

The good surface finish of gears is one of the critical parameters which leads to its noise-free operation, efficient power transmission, and longer service life. However, most of the gear manufacturing processes do not produce a good surface finish. Therefore, gears need post-processing to finish their surface. Out of several methods of gear finishing like gear grinding, lapping, and honing, the abrasive flow finishing process offers more flexibility due to its self-deformable abrasive medium which can easily flow across complex internal or external geometry. The present study aims to improve the surface finish of helical gear by abrasive flow finishing (AFF) by experimentally identifying the optimum range of the potential input process parameters. An AFF set up was used for gear finishing by using a medium of styrene-butadiene and soft silicone polymer, Silicon carbide abrasive, and silicone oil as a blending agent. A special fixture was developed comprising of five parts namely spider, mandrel, upper, middle, and bottom cylinder with a circumferential hole, which allows the back and forth movement of AFF medium through the annular volume between fixture and gear. Further, an experimental investigation of process parameters like viscosity, effect of percentage of various components in medium, operating pressure, and helix angle of helical gears have been studied on percentage improvement of surface roughness (Ra) value of the gear. It is found that the concentration of abrasives in media and extrusion pressure were the two most significant parameters that have a maximum effect on the percentage reduction in surface roughness and finishing rate. Results show that the optimum combination of the extrusion pressure and abrasive weight percentage is 38 bar and 40 % that produces best results of around 76 and 69 % improvement in Ra for gear of helix angle 30 degree and 45 degree respectively.