Effect of working parameters on the surface integrity in cryogenic diamond burnishing of 17-4 PH stainless steel with a novel diamond burnishing tool

Abstract

The productivity of the components is adversely affected by the poor surface integrity characteristics as a consequence of the generation of high temperature in the burnishing zone. The abundant use of conventional lubricants causes environmental pollution and health problems. To overcome these issues, cryogenic cooling has been used across the world to reduce the temperature generated in the burnishing zone. It is well known that most of the accidents which involve aero engines have revealed that the reason for this may be due to the failure of the first stage of compressor blades. Hence aerospace material, 17-4 precipitation hardenable (PH) stainless steel can be used in aero engines to minimize the failure occurring due to foreign object damage. In the present study, the effect of cryogenic diamond burnishing on the surface integrity characteristics such as surface roughness, surface hardness, surface morphology, surface topography, subsurface microhardness, and residual stress of 17-4 pH stainless steel have been investigated with a novel diamond burnishing tool and also it has been related to dry and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) environments. From the experimental results of diamond burnishing process, surface roughness was observed to be reduced by 33%–50%, 34%–51% and 25%–40% in the cryogenic cooling environment in contrast with MQL and dry environments. Similarly, the surface hardness improvement in a cryogenic cooling environment was found to be 5%–7%, 6%–10%, and 6%–9%, in comparison with MQL and dry environments respectively. © 2019 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers