An experimental investigation into the effects of working gap and rotational speed on the surface roughness by using boron carbide abrasive powder during magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) process.

The magnetic abrasive machining (MAM) technique is a well-developed unconventional machining technique. In the manufacturing industry, magnetic abrasive particles (MAP) and the magnetic force required to apply in the machining zone are commonly used in the nano-range for surface finishing of workpieces. It is more precise and faster than traditional methods, and it can produce finished components that are defect-free. This paper illustrates the development of an experimental setup for performing MAF operations on a flat A681 high carbon steel plate. Effect of working gap, rational speed, and abrasive particle size on change in surface roughness and material removal have been studied. Taguchi's L12 design of experimentation technique was used to plan the experiments. After each experiment, we calculated improvement in the surface finish and material removal. The result showed that, the highest improvement value of average surface roughness (ΔRa) was 0.066 µm (56.89 %) at 150 rpm, 1.5 mm gap, 35 µm abrasive particle size. The lowest value of ΔRa was as 0.09 µm (11.11 %) at 360 rpm, 1.5 mm gap, 400 µm abrasive particle size, the highest value of material removal (MR) was 0.026 g at 360 rpm, 1.5 mm gap, 400 µm abrasive particle size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]