Diamond burnishing is a finishing precision machining that is often used to improve the quality characteristics of previously machined surfaces. With its help, the surface roughness can be reduced, the surface hardness can be increased, and the tensile stresses remaining in the surface after cutting can be transformed into compressive ones, and these changes can increase the service life of the components. Diamond burnishing was typically developed for processing cylindrical surfaces and is most often used for this type of surface. In this manuscript, we present a new method with the help of sliding burnishing, which can also be used on flat surfaces. By using the clamping head of a special tool into the main spindle of the vertical milling machine and moving it along a suitable path, the flat surface can be burnished. Machining experiments were carried out with the new type of tool on general-purpose, unalloyed, structural carbon steel samples on which the flat surfaces were previously generated by face milling. The examined parameters were the burnishing force F, the feed f_b, and the number of passes (NoP). The L9 Taguchi experiment design was applied for executing flat slide burnishing, and the examination was conducted by ANOVA analysis. This research contributes to the field by providing insights into optimizing the burnishing process parameters for achieving desired surface quality in milling operations.

Burnishing is a critical surface finishing process that uses a hard tool to apply pressure on the surface, lasting one or multiple passes to plastically deform surface asperities on high-performance alloys like 42CrMo4 steel. But the conventional method fails to efficiently enhance surface properties by selecting specifically the values of feed in all passes that follow the same path, missing uneven asperities. In this study, surfaces are burnished with multiple passes by changing the feed in each pass, hypothesizing that the approach can optimize the plastic deformation mechanism. By applying this approach, the tool’s path is deviated from its previous path to enhance the surface integrity by targeting residual surface anomalies. Controlled four levels of forces (60, 90, 120, 150 N), four feed levels (0.02, 0.08, 0.14, and 0.2 mm/rev), and three levels of passes (2, 3, 4) were applied on the proposed method and the conventional method to evaluate and compare their effects. Experimental results confirmed better surface roughness by the varying feed approach, demonstrating its efficacy in enhancing finishing quality through controlled plastic deformation. The analyzed S_a, S_sk, S_ku, S_k, S_pk, and S_vk showed changed topography by both methods, specifically 0.02 mm/rev feed in the old and feed combination in the feed-varying method, which included 0.02 mm/rev, produced smoother surfaces, but the highest elapsed time. The findings generally highlight the potential of adaptive feed strategies to overcome limitations of conventional burnishing, offering a viable solution for precision finishing of high-performance alloys.

Slide burnishing is a non-material-removal process that improves surface finish by plastically deforming peaks into valleys using a spherical hard tool. Conventionally, multiple passes were applied with the same setup to address residual peaks, even though the first pass achieves most of the deformation. Each pass consumes equal time and energy unless parameters like feed or force are adjusted, and changing these parameters requires another cycle of passes. This repetitive approach leads to inefficiencies in time and energy, highlighting the need for different approaches to reduce redundancy while improving surface integrity. This experiment aims to change these processes by changing the feed after each pass to help the tool follow a different path than the first round. Four levels of tool feed with three levels of force and three passes were tested in nine runs that required 27 runs in the conventional method for comparison and were used to burnish the face-milled C45 steel. The new method enhanced the initial surface with up to a 66.6% decrease in Sq, greater than by the old method, and up to 69.3% in Ssk. The new method showed more steady and predictable changes of skewness than the old method during parameter changes. The old method performed better in reducing kurtosis levels when a higher number of passes (three and four) were used. These results demonstrate significant improvement over the traditional techniques, paving the way for innovative advancements and further research in the field.

The sliding diamond burnishing process is one among many burnishing post-machining processes applied for surface integrity enhancement purposes. This experimental study aims to investigate the effect of burnishing parameters on the surface roughness of the product. Taguchi design was used, and the machining parameters considered were burnishing force, feed rate, and the number of passes with three levels each. C45 steel alloy workpieces were face milled with the same machining variables and their surface roughness was measured before and after the diamond sliding burnishing process. Enhanced surface roughness was achieved with increasing burnishing force and minimum feed rate and higher number of passes.

Additive manufacturing (AM)’s ability to produce customized products with reduced material wastage and other advantages helped the technology to gain popularity in many industries. However, its poor surface integrity is its weak side, and to overcome this, additional post-processes are essential. Slide diamond burnishing, known for its enhancement of surface roughness, residual stress, microhardness, and other properties, was combined with grinding in this research after 3D printing of MetcoAdd 17-4PH-A to mitigate the mentioned shortcomings. This study aimed to analyze the effects of each process on surface roughness, residual stress (both on the surface and in-depth), and microhardness. Workpieces were ground with the same parameters and burnished with four levels of force, feed, and number of passes. The L16 Taguchi experimental design was used to optimize the process parameters and to study their effects. For surface roughness, the optimum parameters were found to be 60 N force, 0.02 m/min feed rate, and three passes. The longitudinal surface residual stress has optimal values at 80 N force, 0.02 m/min feed rate, and four passes. In the case of transverse surface residual stress, the optimal values were 60 N force, 0.17 m/min feed rate, and three passes. Microhardness was maximized with 60 N force, 0.02 m/min feed rate, and one pass. Additionally, the in-depth residual stress for selected surfaces was investigated, and 100 N force showed a deep burnishing effect. Further multi-objective optimization using desirability function analysis found that the optimal parameters for all responses were achieved at the fourth burnishing force level (100 N), the first tool feed level (0.02 m/min), and the fourth number of passes level (four passes). Ultimately, both grinding and burnishing processes exhibited significant enhancements in the measured parameters.

Burnishing is a non-cutting finishing technique in which pressure is applied to plastically deform the irregularly distributed surface materials. In this process, the peaks of the surface are pressed into the valleys with a hard tool, resulting in a smoother surface with improved properties. The influence of brunishing parameters such as brunishing force, feed rate and number of passes on the 3D surface roughness of medium carbon steel was analyzed. An orthogonal L9 array Taguchi design was used to create a robust experiment. A CNC milling machine and a confocal microscope were used to grind and measure the workpiece surface. The topography roughness responses Sq, Sv, Sz and Sa were used to evaluate the roughness changes. The optimal parameters for brunishing were a feed rate of 0.05 m/min, 2 passes and a force of 80N for Sq and Sa and a force of 100N for Sv and Sz. This research is expected to provide insights into optimizing mass finishing processes to improve surface integrity, contributing to advances in manufacturing and materials science.