Effect of a Newly Designed L.P.B. Tool on the Surface Enhancement of AISI1045:A Study

A new field 'engineered surfaces' would be more effective and economic route to successful manufacture. There are a number of methods of surface treatment or enhancement that can produce required surface roughness, surface hardness, and residual compressive stresses into the surface of components. Low Plasticity Burnishing (LPB) is a novel method of surface enhancement, which raises the burnishing to next level of sophistication and that can provide deep stable surface compression for improved surface Integrity characteristics. LPB smoothes surface asperities leaving an improved surface finish apart from inducing surface hardness. This technology could be very useful to Defence applications since it has the potential to improve many surface characteristics such as ultimate tensile strength, low and high cycle fatigue strength and, foreign object damage tolerance, corrosion resistance, out of roundness and straightness, wear resistance etc. However, the present study was concentrated only on the surface roughness and surface micro hardness aspects. After studying the various parameters of the Low plasticity burnishing process, which affect considerably the surface roughness and surface hardness of AISI1045, the favourable and optimum conditions could be predicted and tailored for different materials for different requirements of finish/surface hardness and economy of process. Surface roughness up to 0.5 microns and surface hardness of 421HV was achieved forAISI1045, by this process. The process can be applied to critical components effectively, as the LPB process today has significant process cycle time advantages. This cycle time advantage and lower capital cost translate to substantially lower cost for LPB. Additional cost reduction will be realized by introducing proven high speed machining concepts into the LPB process.