Various methods can be used to modify the surface of workpieces made of or coated with alloy materials. This paper discusses the experimental results of electrical discharge alloying with a rotary disc brush electrode, a vibrating rod electrode and a monolithic electrode. Different electrodes generate different surface textures and as the experimental data shows all the three variants of electrical discharge alloying are well suited to improve the quality of the workpiece surface.

The article presents an example of finishing treatment for aluminum alloys with the use of vibration machining, with loose abrasive media in a closed tumbler. For the analysis of selected properties of the surface layer prepared flat samples of aluminum alloy PA6/2017 in the state after recrystallization. The samples in the first stage were subjected to a treatment of deburring using ceramic media. In a second step polishing process performed with a strengthening metal media. In addition, for comparative purposes was considered. only the case of metal polishing. The prepared samples were subjected to hardness tests and a tangential tensile test. As a result of finishing with vibratory machining, it was possible to remove burrs, flash, rounding sharp edges, smoothing and lightening the surface of objects made. The basic parameters of the surface geometry were obtained using the Talysurf CCI Lite - Taylor Hobson optical profiler. As a result of the tests it can be stated that the greatest reduction of surface roughness and mass loss occurs in the first minutes of the process. Mechanical tests have shown that the most advantageous high values of tensile strength and hardness are obtained with two-stage vibration treatment, - combination of deburring and polishing. Moreover the use of metal media resulted in the strengthening of the surface by pressure deburring with metal media.

The paper presents the production problems related to casting using precision casting methods. The essential adverse effect of the casting process is the presence of burrs understood as oversize material necessary to remove the next finishing operations. In addition, the surfaces of the cast often characterized by a porous structure. One of the methods to improve the smoothness of the area proposed by the authors is the use of vibro-abrasive finishing. This type of treatment is widely used in the treatment of finishing small objects as well as complex shapes. Objects in the form of casting in the first step was treated with aggressive deburring polyester matrix abrasive media. The second stage was polishing, with using smoothing porcelain media. The study evaluated the effect of vibro-abrasive machining typical cast on the basic parameters of the geometric structure of the surface. Observations using optical microscope Nicon Eclipse MA 200 compared changes in surface microstructure and the effect of deburring. Clearly we can say that vibro-abrasive machining an effective way of reducing the size of burrs, smoothing and lightening the surface of objects made by casting.

In the paper, a comprehensive study of the electro-discharge mechanical alloying with using brush electrode is presented. This kind of a novel method is denoted as BEDMA (Brush Electro-Discharge Mechanical Alloying) and it combines features of electrical discharge machining with thermo-mechanical treatment. Electrode is being made of material which is to be alloyed on the part surface. A mathematical modelling of the thermal processes and mechanical action during the interaction of a single filament on the machined surface have been developed and used to estimation of the material transfer rate

Influence of heat treatment on the corrosion resistance of the aluminum-copper (Al-Cu) coating on the aluminum substrate was investigated. The coating was produced by the electrical discharge alloying (EDA) method. The surface and microstructure of the specimens were observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The phase analysis of the composite materials by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) indicated that intermetallic compounds (i.e., CuAl₂ and Cu₉Al₄) were formed through reactions between Al and Cu. during the EDA process. A significant increase in the hardness of the Al-Cu coating was affected by the improvement of the alloy structure. The heat treatment of materials was carried out at 400 °C or 600 °C in the air atmosphere. A corrosion test of materials was carried out by using electrochemical methods. The corrosive environment was acidic chloride solution. After heat treatment at 400 °C the mechanical properties of the Al/Cu alloy increased significantly and the oxide layer protect of the alloy surface against corrosion. However, after heat treatment at elevated temperature, i.e., 600 °C it was found that the (Al₂O₃)_ads and (CuO)_ads coatings were destroyed. The mechanical properties of the Al/Cu alloy decreased, and its surface has undergone deep electrochemical corrosion.