Burnishing is considered a super finishing process able to drastically increase surface quality in terms of hardness and roughness of the manufactured parts. Consequently, it is considered appealing for the performance enhancement of products where the surface quality plays a crucial role. However, when burnishing grade 5 titanium alloy, a quantitative relationship between process parameters and surface integrity is still missing. This work provides a deep analysis of the burnishing parameters and their influence on the surface integrity of Ti-6Al-4V. In particular, starting from a large experimental campaign, statistical analysis of the results is performed and models able to describe the surface integrity response based on different burnishing parameters are presented. The overall results allow us to clearly define the relationship within the input and output variables identifying, by the proposed models, different operational windows for surface integrity improvement.

White layer (WL) formation in metal cutting is generally found to have negative effects on the corrosion and fatigue life of machined components. Nowadays, the mechanism of the WL formation has not been understood very well, especially about the contribution of the thermal and mechanical loadings generated by the cutting process on WL formation. The relationship between subsurface plastic strain caused by mechanical loadings and the formation of WLs is of our concern. To address this issue, WL formation in hard turning of AISI 52100 under dry and cryogenic cooling conditions is investigated by subsurface plastic strain measurement using the micro-grid technique, observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Due to the considerable low temperature, WL is mainly generated by the mechanical effect rather than the thermal one, and this hypothesis is supported by physically based finite element method (FEM) simulations. From the investigations, we discover the existing plastic strain threshold, which governs the occurrence of WL in hard turning of AISI 52100 steel under cryogenic cooling conditions.

Residual stresses and strains, distortions, heat-affected zone (HAZ), grain size changes and hardness variation during gas metal arc welding (GMAW), are fundamental aspects to study and control during welding processes. For this reason, numerical simulations of the welding processes represent the more frequently used tool to better analyse the several aspects characterizing this joining process with the aim to reduce lead time and production costs. In the present study, an uncoupled 3D thermo-mechanical analysis was carried out by two commercial finite element method (FEM) software to model an experimental single bead GMAW of AISI 441 at different processes set-up. The experimental HAZ and measured temperatures were used to calibrate the heat source of both the used numerical codes, then a validation phase was done to test the robustness of the two developed analytical procedures. One software was used to predict the residual stresses and strains and the distortions of the welded components, while in the second software, a user routine was implemented, including a physical based model and the Hall-Petch (H-P) equation, to predict grain size change and hardness evolution, respectively. The results demonstrate that the predicted mechanical and microstructural aspects agree with those experimentally found showing the reliability of the two codes in predicting the thermal phenomena characterizing the HAZ during the analysed welding process.

In this study, the mechanical properties of welded joints of AA 6005-T6 aluminum alloy obtained with hybrid laser-MIG and cold metal transfer (CMT) welding were analyzed. The performance of hybrid laser-MIG and CMT welded joints were identified using tensile, bending, shear and fatigue life tests. Taking into account the process conditions and requirements, hybrid laser-MIG and CMT welding processes were compared with friction stir welding (FSW) and conventional metal inert gas (MIG) welding processes, shown in a previous work, to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the processes for welding applications of studied Al alloy. Better tensile, bending and shear strength and fatigue life behavior were obtained with hybrid laser-MIG and FSW welded joints compared with conventional MIG processes.

Surface integrity of machined products can have a critical impact on their performance, such as corrosion, wear and/or fatigue resistance. It has been reported that reducing the grain size of AZ31B Mg alloys could significantly enhance its corrosion resistance, which is often the limiting factor for its wide application. Severe plastic deformation (SPD) has proved to be an effective way to induce grain refinement. In this study, the potential of cryogenic machining as a novel SPD method to induce grain refinement on the surface of AZ31B Mg alloys was investigated. The microstructures of the workpiece surface/sub-surface and the machined chips after both dry and cryogenic machining were studied. A surface layer where nanocrystallized grains exist was found in the machined surface under cryogenic conditions. Increasing the edge radius of the cutting tool resulted in a thicker grain refinement layer. In addition to the experimental study, an FE model based on the Johnson-Cook constitutive equation was developed and validated using experimental data in terms of chip morphology and forces. The capability of this model to predict critical deformation parameters for dynamic recrystallization (DRX), such as strain, strain-rate and temperature, was demonstrated. With further development, the model can be used to predict the onset of DRX and the grain size on the machined surface.