EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON FINISHING OF INNER SURFACES OF TUBES USING MAGNETIC ABRASIVES

CAPSTONE PROJECT-II

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the award of the Degree of BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING BY ASHISH PANDAY RAHUL KUMAR KETAN KUMAR SINHA MOHAMMAD RAFI Registration number: 10906000 Registration number: 10901641 Registration number: 10907987 Registration number: 10902272

Under the guidance of Jaiinderpreet singh, Astt. Professor Discipline of mechanical engineering Lovely professional university

Months and year of submission April 2013

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the Capstone project titled INTERNAL

FINISHING OF

CYLINDRICAL PIPES USING

SINTERED MAGNETIC ABRASIVES that is

being submitted by Ashish panday , Rahul kumar , Ketan kumar sinha , Mohammad rafi is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of BECHOLER OF TECHNOLOGY DEGREE, is a record of bonafide work done under my /our guidance. The contents of this Capstone project , in full or in parts, have neither been taken from any other source nor have been submitted to any other Institute or University for award of any degree or diploma and the same is certified.

Name:jaiinderpreet singh U.ID: Designation: Asst. Professor

(Name of the Organization) (Organization stamp)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A research work owes its success from commencement to completion, to the people in love with researchers at various stages. Let me in this page express my gratitude to all those who helped me in various stage of this study. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Almighty GOD. With immense pleasure, we wish to express our gratitude to our mentor Mr jaiinderpeet singh for his excellent guidance, motivation, constant encouragement and co-operation during the course of this work. It has been indeed an enriching scientific experience to work with him. Last but not the least, the supporting staff of the institute assigned with the lab duties deserve to be profusely thanked for helping me in carrying out my task.

DECLARATION
We hereby declare that the project work entitled INTERNAL

FINISHING OF

CYLINDRICAL PIPES USING

SINTERED MAGNETIC ABRASIVES is an

authentic record of our own work carried out as requirements of Capstone Project (Part-II) for the award of degree of B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering (152) from Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, under the guidance of Mr. jaiinderpreet singh.

Project Group Number: G Name of Student 1: Ashish panday Registration number: 10906000 Name of Student 2: Rahul Kumar Registration Number: 10901641 Name of Student 3: Ketan kumar sinha Registration Number: 10907987 Name of Student 4: Mohammad rafi Registration Number: 10902272

(Signature of Student 1) (Signature of Student 2) (Signature of Student 3) (Signature of Student 4)

Abstract
High purity gas and liquid piping system for critical applications, such as those required for aerospace components and semiconductor plants, are required to provide smoothly finished inner pipe surfaces to prevent the contamination of gas and liquid. This study presents the application of one of emerging technique of finishing i.e. magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) for finishing the inner surfaces of brass tubes using Al2O3 based sintered magnetic abrasives. The Al2O3 based sintered magnetic abrasives have been developed in sintering machine. The experiments performed on brass tubes examine the effects of speed, magnetic flux density (MFD), abrasive grit size and quantity of abrasives on the finishing characteristics. The finished surface is highly dependent on the speed which increases number of cutting edges takes part in machining; on MFD which affects strength as well as area of contact of the magnetic brush with workpiece followed by abrasive grit size which controls the depth of cut and the quantity of abrasives which increases the number of abrasive cutting edges. By altering these conditions, this process will achieve surface finishes as fine as 0.05 m in surface roughness (Ra). To understand the cutting mechanism of magnetic abrasive finishing process, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the machined surfaces has been carried out.

An internal magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) process will proposed to produce highly finished inner surfaces of workpieces used in critical applications. The process principle and the finishing characteristics of magnetic abrasive finishing of cylindrical pipes using sintered magnetic abrasives are described in this research work. The sintered magnetic abrasive is a mixture of Al2O3 abrasive and ferromagnetic particles. The Al2O3 based sintered magnetic abrasives have been developed in sintering machine. The surface roughness measurements resulting from finishing experiments demonstrate the effects of the abrasive behavior on the surface modifications. The surface finish will analysed in terms of percent improvement in surface finish (PISF). Also surface finish will analysed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The obtained minimum surface roughness was 0.05 m Ra. To further study the improvement in surface finish, the surface was microscopically examined using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD).

Abbreviations

Magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF).

Sintering, X-Ray diffraction (XRD).

Universal testing machine (UTM).

Magnetic flux density

(MFD).

Introduction

It is difficult to finish advanced engineering materials with high accuracy, and minimal surface defects such as microcracks, by conventional grinding and polishing techniques. To minimize the surface damage, gentle/flexible finishing conditions are required, namely, a low level of controlled force. Magnetic field assisted manufacturing processes are becoming effective in finishing, cleaning, deburring and burnishing of metal and advanced engineering material parts. Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF) is one of the non conventional machining processes which came to the surface in 1938 in a patent by Harry P. Coats. The countries which are involved in the study and development of this process are USA, CIS, France, England, Bulgaria, Japan and Germany. In modern time, fine surface finish is in high demand with the development of industry manufacturing technology, in a wide range of industrial applications. A relatively new finishing advanced machining process in which cutting force is primarily controlled by the magnetic field. A magnetic abrasive machining (MAF) process is the one in which material is removed in such a way that surface finishing and deburring are performed simultaneously with the applied magnetic field in the finishing zone and it can achieve highly finished surfaces that conventional techniques never achieve. MAF is a fine finishing technique which can be employed to produce optical, mechanical, and electronic components with micrometer or submicrometer form accuracy and surface roughness within nanometer range with hardly any surface defects. Finishing of bearings, precision automotive components, shafts, and artificial hip joints made of oxide ceramic and cobalt alloy are some of the products for which this process can be applied. This process can be used to produce efficiently good surface quality on at surfaces as well as internal and external surfaces of tube type work pieces. The method can not only machine ferromagnetic materials such as steel, but can also machine non ferromagnetic materials such as stainless steel, aluminium and brass. The Abrasives generally rely upon a difference in hardness between the abrasive and the material being worked upon, the abrasive being the harder of the two substances. Shinmura studied the effects of different machining parameters like magnetic flux density, vibration frequency and amplitude, machining time and pole-work gap on finishing characteristics using sintered magnetic abrasives. They concluded that the two parameters vibration and magnetic flux density remarkably affects the finishing efficiency. Shinmura

prepared two types of magnetic abrasives by sintering. In first sample, diameter of iron particle was varied and in second, diameter of abrasive particle varied. They reported that diameter of iron particle effects both stock removal and surface finish. Influence of the diameter of abrasive particle on stock removal was comparatively small while surface roughness was remarkably affected. The diamond abrasives were mixed with iron to form diamond magnetic abrasives by Shinmura and Aizawa . He concluded that finishing efficiency increased with diamond magnetic abrasives with increase of speed of tool. He used them for finishing of ceramics to get high surface finish. Results showed that machining depth increases with increase of mixing weight percentage of iron particles. Khairy prepared magnetic abrasives by blending of Al2O3(15%) and iron powders (85%), compacting them by a bench press, sintering the mixture in a furnace at 1400 C in an inert environment, crushing the compacts into small particles and then sieving to different ranges of sizes. The finishing of silver steel bars was studied with these sintered magnetic abrasives for various combinations of finishing parameters. Jain finished stainless steel workpiece material (nonferromagnetic) and observed that working gap and circumferential speed are the influential parameters affecting the material removal and surface roughness value. Mori has studied the process mechanism by using sintered magnetic abrasive particles. Kim has developed a new type of magnetic abrasive composed of WC/Co sintered particles for cleaning the tubes, and found the optimal finishing parameters. Yamaguchi and Shinmura studied the application of MAF for finishing of the inner surfaces of alumina ceramic components using diamond based magnetic abrasives. The experiments performed on alumina ceramic tubes examined the effects of volume of lubricant, ferrous particle size, and abrasive grain size on the finishing characteristics. Yamaguchi et al. proposed the finishing of SUS304 stainless steel bent tubes using aluminium oxide composite magnetic abrasive with a mean diameter of 80 m. It contains Al2O3 with grain size less than 10 m sintered with iron in an inert gas atmosphere with high pressure and temperature. A two phase finishing process controlling the size of the ferrous particles was proposed to achieve efficient fine surface finishing. In particular, the use of 150 m iron particles after 330 m iron particles was found to be effective. Wang and Hu studied on the inner surface finishing of tubing by magnetic abrasive finishing. They used three kinds of work materials i.e. Ly12 aluminium alloy, 316L stainless steel and H62 brass. They concluded that material removal rate of brass is highest amongst all three materials. Lin et al. prepared sintered magnetic abrasives by typically mixing iron powder and Al2O3 powder with composition of 60:40 of wt% and compressing mixture into the cylindrical shape. These compacts were sintered into a vacuum furnace. After sintering process, these

cylinders were crushed to produce magnetic abrasives. These abrasives were used for the finishing of non-ferromagnetic material, SUS304. Khangura et al. highlighted major existing technologies that are used to manufacture magnetic abrasives. Main performance characteristics of magnetic abrasives have also been reviewed as regards to micromachining of various surfaces. They stated that amongst all the available varieties of magnetic abrasives, the sintered magnetic abrasives give highest surface finish on most of the work materials. The best surface finish of 8 nm value is obtained on silver steel. They also stated that wet abrasives give better finishing results as compared to dry abrasives.

Fine surface finish is in high demand in a wide spectrum of industrial applications. An internal magnetic abrasive finishing process was proposed for producing highly finished inner surfaces of work pieces used in critical such applications as aerospace components and in semiconductor plants. It is difficult to finish advanced engineering materials with high accuracy, and minimal surface defects such as microcracks, by conventional grinding and polishing techniques. To minimize the surface damage, gentle/flexible finishing conditions are required, namely, a low level of controlled force. Magnetic field assisted manufacturing processes are becoming effective in finishing, cleaning, deburring and burnishing of metal and advanced engineering material parts. Magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) is one of the non conventional machining processes which came to the surface in 1938 in a patent by Harry P. Coats. The countries which are involved in the study and development of this process are USA, CIS, France, England, Bulgaria, Japan and Germany. In modern time, fine surface finish is in high demand with the development of industry manufacturing technology, in a wide range of industrial applications. A relatively new finishing advanced machining process in which cutting force is primarily controlled by the magnetic field. A magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) process is the one in which material is removed in such a way that surface finishing and deburring are performed simultaneously with the applied magnetic field in the finishing zone and it can achieve highly finished surfaces that conventional techniques never achieve. MAF is a fine finishing technique which can be employed to produce optical, mechanical, and electronic components with micrometer or submicrometer form accuracy and surface roughness within nanometer range with hardly any surface defects. Finishing of bearings, precision automotive components, shafts, and artificial hip joints made of oxide ceramic and cobalt alloy are some of the products for which this process can be applied. This process can be used to produce efficiently good surface quality on at surfaces as well as internal and external surfaces of tube

type work pieces The method can not only machine ferromagnetic materials such as steel, but can also machine non ferromagnetic materials such as stainless steel, aluminium and brass. The Abrasives generally rely upon a difference in hardness between the abrasive and the material being worked upon, the abrasive being the harder of the two substances. Shinmura prepared two types of magnetic abrasives by sintering. In first sample, diameter of iron particle was varied and in second, diameter of abrasive particle varied. They reported that diameter of iron particle effects both stock removal and surface finish. Influence of the diameter of abrasive particle on stock removal was comparatively small while surface roughness was remarkably affected. studied the effects of different machining parameters like magnetic flux density, vibration frequency and amplitude, machining time and pole-work gap on finishing characteristics using sintered magnetic abrasives. They concluded that the two parameters vibration and magnetic flux density remarkably affects the finishing efficiency. studied the application of MAF for finishing of the inner surfaces of alumina ceramic components using diamond based magnetic abrasives. The experiments performed on alumina ceramic tubes examined the effects of volume of lubricant, ferrous particle size, and abrasive grain size on the finishing characteristics. concluded that with the increase in rotational speed of magnetic pole, the metal removal rate increases. They almost keep a linear relationship under given experimental conditions. The metal removal of brass work piece was highest with the artificial abrasives (alloyed Titanium Carbide and Iron). The diamond abrasives were mixed with iron to form diamond magnetic abrasives by He concluded that finishing efficiency increased with diamond magnetic abrasives with increase of speed of tool. He used them for finishing of ceramics to get high surface finish. Results showed that machining depth increases with increase of mixing weight percentage of iron particles. has developed a new type of magnetic abrasive composed of WC/Co sintered particles for cleaning the tubes, and found the optimal finishing parameters. prepared magnetic abrasives by blending of Al2O3(15%) and iron powders (85%), compacting them by a bench press, sintering the mixture in a furnace at 1400 C in an inert environment, crushing the compacts into small particles and then sieving to different ranges of sizes. The finishing of silver steel bars was studied with these sintered magnetic abrasives for various combinations of finishing parameters. Yamaguchi et al. [15] proposed the finishing of SUS304 stainless steel bent tubes using aluminium oxide composite magnetic abrasive with a mean diameter of 80 m. It contains Al2O3 with grain size less than 10 m sintered with iron in an inert gas atmosphere with high pressure and temperature. A two phase finishing process controlling the size of the ferrous particles was proposed to achieve efficient fine surface finishing. In particular, the use

of 150 m iron particles after 330 m iron particles was found to be effective. Jain et al finished stainless steel workpiece material (non-ferromagnetic) and observed that working gap and circumferential speed are the influential parameters affecting the material removal and surface roughness value. has studied the process mechanism by using sintered magnetic abrasive particles. Lin et al. prepared sintered magnetic abrasives by typically mixing iron powder and Al2O3 powder with composition of 60:40 of wt% and compressing mixture into the cylindrical shape. These compacts were sintered into a vacuum furnace. After sintering process, these cylinders were crushed to produce magnetic abrasives. These abrasives were used for the finishing of non-ferromagnetic material, SUS304. Wang and Hu studied on the inner surface finishing of tubing by magnetic abrasive finishing. They used three kinds of work materials i.e. Ly12 aluminium alloy, 316L stainless steel and H62 brass. They concluded that material removal rate of brass is highest amongst all three materials. Khangura highlighted major existing technologies that are used to manufacture magnetic abrasives. They stated that amongst all the available varieties of magnetic abrasives, the sinteredmagnetic abrasives give highest surface finish on most of the work materials.

The rapid development of the semiconductor, biotechnology, and optical electronic industries has increased the importance of geometrical precision and part surface quality. Finishing is

regularly applied to parts to obtain precise surfaces. Hence, numerous finishing techniques have been applied for finishing parts to obtain parts with high quality. These techniques include chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), electrical polishing (EP), and many others. However, both CMP and EP suffer from the formation of pollutants during its operations, and also yield surfaces with limited quality. Consequently, researchers in the industry and academics have attempted to develop a better means of obtaining a high-precision surface, with low cost, high efficiency, easy operations and low environmental pollution. Following recent technological developments, stainless steel materials with characteristics of anti-oxidizing, anti-corrosive, and shiny surface have been applied in electronic, biochemical and medical instrumentation equipments. The surface of stainless steel parts must be extremely smooth to prevent pollution. Optimally, the surface finish can reach a level in that it looks like a mirror. A smooth stainless steel surface not only improves the parts quality but it also prevents rusting and staining of the parts surface. Finished parts can prevent the occurrence of the following situations: powder particles remaining on the part surfaces, contact between parts and the stainless steel surface, rough surfaces residing with oil dusk or food particles, and stainless steel burr of processed parts falling off when two parts contact each other.

Stainless steel is a soft, tough, and a difficult finishing material. Thin plate stainless steel that uses traditional processes is not easy to achieve a good surface finish. Hence, manual finishing was usually applied to achieve a surface finish that looks like a mirror. However, it is very time consuming to achieve a good surface finish using manual finishing techniques for stainless container steel surfaces. To resolve the above problems, magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) was recently created. MAF involves using a permanent magnet or an electronic magnet to generate a magnetic field, and the magnetic abrasives are formed as a flexible magnetic brush for pressing the workpiece. Thus, the magnetic brush becomes a finishing tool, and the magnetic abrasives of the magnetic brush stick to the workpiece during the finishing. Moreover, the frictional force generated by the abrasive finishing can remove particles of free-form surface. The procedure is repeated until a desired surface finish is attained.

When a permanent magnet was installed on the topside of the workpiece, any uneven or concave areas on the part could be finished. Moreover, when the magnetic pole was installed inside or outside of the part, the internal and external pipes could also be finished . Therefore,

MAF is a multi-function precise finishing method. Workpiece materials can be magnetic (such as steel) or non-magnetic (such as ceramic), and the material removal weight can also be adjusted based on the size of the magnetic abrasives. The finishing pressure is controlled via the magnetic field, so MAF is used for micro-pressure finishing . Thus, the MAF method achieved a highly efficient way of obtaining a good surface finish. This study attempts to develop a surface finishing technique for stainless steel, with the aim of analyzing the effects of different parameters and constructing the prediction system for the development of a further adaptive control system. Secondly, this investigation seeks to enhance surface finish of parts in order to meet the customer requirements

Fundamental principle

Magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) of free-form surfaces involves filling the gap between the circular magnetic pole and the workpiece with the magnetic abrasives. The magnetic abrasives consist of sintered pure iron powder (99.9% Fe) and Al2O3. The end face of the magnetic pole absorbs the magnetic abrasives and forms a closed-loop magnetic field with the workpiece holder. The magnetic abrasives are generated in a non-uniformly magnetic field; in which the abrasives will join each other and follow the direction of the magnetic force to form a flexible magnetic brush. Refer to Figure 2-1 to see how the magnetic brush acted on the free-form surface. The magnetic force lines generated power to apply pressure from the magnetic abrasives to the workpiece, and the magnetic brush became a tool for finishing the workpiece. Moreover, the magnetic abrasives in the magnetic brush stick to the workpiece. When the magnetic pole rotates and moves with the workpiece relatively, the frictional force generated from MAF cause the abrasives to finish the particles of uneven or free-form surfaces until it becomes smooth. Moreover, the magnetic brush continues to move on the x-y-z direction of the CNC machine, brushing the workpiece until it meets the customers requirements.

The basic principle of magnetic abrasive finishing is that magnetic abrasive particles (MAPs) are attracted by magnetic field in the finishing zone. These particles join each other along the lines of magnetic force due to dipoledipole interaction and form a flexible magnetic abrasive brush (FMAB) which pushes against the work piece surface and develops finishing pressure. This finishing pressure originates micro indentations in the workpiece surface. The tangential force developed by FMAB is the major cutting force responsible for micro chipping. Abrasives generally rely upon a difference in hardness between the abrasive and the material being worked upon, the abrasive being the harder of the two substances.

In the configuration where magnetic poles N & S were placed face to face with their axes crossing at right angle with a brass tubing shown in figure 1. In MAF operation, workpiece is kept between the two magnets. The Magnetic field extends in the inner region of the tubing without regard to presence and absence of the tubing to the machined and actuates magnetic force to magnetic abrasive particles (MAPs) packed inside pipe. MAPs are made up of iron powder and Al2O3 powder sintered at 1100C. MAPs can be used as unbonded, loosely bonded or bonded. Bonded MAPs are prepared by sintering of ferromagnetic powder and abrasive powder at a very high pressure and temperature in inert gas atmosphere. Loosely bonded MAPs are prepared by mechanical mixing of ferromagnetic powder and abrasive powder with a small amount of lubricant to give some holding strength between the abrasive and ferromagnetic particles. Unbonded MAPs are mechanical mixture of ferromagnetic and abrasive particles without any lubricant. The MAPs join each other along the lines of magnetic force and form a flexible magnetic abrasive brush between each magnetic pole and the workpiece. This brush behaves like a multipoint cutting tool for finishing operation. The magnetic force on the abrasive particles provides the necessary machining force. This force is responsible for the abrasion of the pipe by MAPs

Magnetic abrasives introduced into the pipe are conglomerated at the finishing zone by a magnetic field, generating the finishing force against the inner surface of the tube. In the process, magnetic abrasive particles introduced into the workpiece are attracted by the magnetic field and bear on the inner surface of the workpiece. These particles join each other along the lines of magnetic force due to dipoledipole interaction and form a flexible magnetic abrasive brush (FMAB) which pushes against the work piece surface and develops finishing pressure. This finishing pressure originates micro indentations in the workpiece surface. The tangential force developed by FMAB is the major cutting force responsible for micro chipping. Abrasives generally rely upon a difference in hardness between the abrasive and the material being worked upon, the abrasive being the harder of the two substances. In MAF operation, work piece is kept between the two magnets. The magnetic poles N & S were placed face to face with their axes crossing at right angle with a brass pipe in the configuration. The Magnetic field extends in the inner region of the pipe without regard to presence and absence of the pipe to the machined and actuates magnetic force to magnetic abrasive particles packed inside pipe. Abrasive particles can be used as unbonded, loosely bonded or bonded. Bonded magnetic abrasive particles areprepared by sintering of ferromagnetic powder (iron) and abrasive powder (Al2O3) at a very high pressure and Palwinder Singh et al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology

(IJEST) temperature in H2 gas atmosphere. Loosely bonded MAPs are prepared by mechanical mixing of ferromagnetic powder and abrasive powder with a small amount of lubricant to give some holding strength between the abrasive and ferromagnetic particles. Unbonded magnetic abrasive particles are mechanical mixture of ferromagnetic and abrasive particles without any lubricant. The magnetic abrasive particles join each other along the lines of magnetic force and form a flexible magnetic abrasive brush between each magnetic pole and the workpiece. This brush behaves like a multipoint cutting tool for finishing operation. The magnetic force on the abrasive particles provides the necessary machining force. This force is responsible for the abrasion of the pipe by magnetic abrasive particles.

Literature Review

The literature, which was reviewed for this project selection, was based upon various aspects of abrasive mixtures prepared by various techniques. The abrasives are non magnetic and it is required to attach these abrasives with any ferro magnetic material, so that the combination of abrasives and ferro magnetic material can be attracted by magnetic field. The various mixing techniques for this purpose were prepared by various researchers and tested for surface finish, finishing time, wear of abrasives mixture Sakulevich et. al. (1980) developed a rotor type machine for abrasive machining of parts with ferromagnetic abrasive powders in magnetic field Kurobe (1983) used magnetic field to finish silicon wafer, glass and copper. In this study the reasercher prepared magnetic fluid, which had the ability to move under magnetic field. Kremen, Z., (1993) prepared diamond and non diamond carbon poly crystalline composites particularly useful as abrasives are made by conventional sintering diamond particles at temperature above about 1440 K but at pressures below which diamond is stable or metastable with respect to its conversion to graphite. Tzong et al. (2003) in their study on Electrolytic magnetic abrasive finishing, Electrolytic magnetic abrasive finishing (EMAF) is a compound finishing process, involving traditional magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) and an electrolytic process. Dixit (2004) carried out experiments upon MAF having a slotted magnetic pole.

Problem formulation

Earlier studies on Magnetic Abrasive Machining were only to utilize this machining process in different operations. Only different types of material workparts are processed upon this machine by various research personnel and organizations. But the cost can also be reduced by maximizing the production rate and by making the best quality product in shortest time. This can be achieved also by making an optimum abrasive grain-workpart combination, which takes least processing time and the quality of the processed component will be best. Therefore the present study was to develop a suitable combination of abrasives and workpart materials by taking different material abrasive particles. By which the whole process will become optimum.

Components used Magnetic abrasives DC Motor

Controller Brass cylindrical pipe Electromagnet

Experimental setup
Figure shows an external view of the experimental setup, which embodies the processing principle described in the previous section. The experimental setup has major components like electromagnet (12 k Gauss), control unit, D.C. motor, variable D.C. supply. The main elements of MAF equipment include the electro magnet (12 k Gauss), variable D.C. supply and abrasive powder (Sintered Al2O3 + Fe). The work piece i.e. brass pipe was held in the chuck attached to D.C. motor and abrasives were packed in the pipe. Magnetic field was applied to the abrasives by electro magnet. Magnetic field strength is varied for experimentation with the help of variable D.C. supply. Electromagnet plays an important role in present experimentation. The space between workpiece and electromagnet is kept constant. The magnetic field strength depends upon weight percentage of the magnetic particles, present in the magnetic abrasive powder. Both the working gap and size of the workpiece are taken into consideration, while designing. The objective of the design is to measured at four points before and after finishing using a Mitutoyo surface roughness tester (SJ-210P) having a least count of 0.001 m (cut off length = 0.8 mm) and averaged. The material removal was measured on an electronic balance with 0.1 mg resolution. Therefore

finishing characteristics in terms of PISF (Percentage Improvement in Surface Finish) and MRR (Material Removal Rate) were analysed.

A schematic of experimental set up is shown in figure ., which embodies the principles of internal finishing described in the previous section. The experimental setup has major components like electromagnet (12 k Gauss), control unit, d.c. motor, variable D.C. supply. The main elements of MAF equipment include the electro magnet (12 k Gauss), variable D.C. supply and abrasive powder (Sintered Al2O3 + Fe). The cylindrical work piece i.e. brass pipe was held in the chuck attached to D.C. motor and abrasives were packed in the pipe. Magnetic field was applied to the abrasives by electro magnet. Magnetic field strength is varied for experimentation with the help of variable D.C. supply. Electromagnet plays an important role in present experimentation. The space between workpiece and electromagnet is kept constant. The magnetic field strength depends upon weight percentage of the magnetic particles, present in the magnetic abrasive powder. Both the working gap and size of the workpiece are taken into consideration, while designing. The objective of the design is to give rotational motion to the cylindrical workpiece. A DC motor is chosen for providing rotational motion to the work piece. A schematic view of the setup is shown in the figure.

Magnetic abrasive particles through magnetic pressure finish the workpiece. Al2O3 based sintered magnetic abrasives are used as magnetic abrasives in this work.

In this study Al2O3 based sintered magnetic abrasives were used for internal finishing of brass tubes. The Alumina (Al2O3) based sintered magnetic abrasives were prepared by blending of Al2O3 (10%) of 200 mesh size (74 m) and iron powders (90%) of 300 mesh size (51.4m)), compacting them by a universal testing machine (UTM), sintering the mixture in a sintering set up at 1100C in H2 gas environment, crushing the compacts into small particles and then sieving to different ranges of sizes. The obtained sizes are 120 m, 200 m, 300 m, 420 m. The experimental conditions are shown in Table 1. Brass tubes (36mm 33mm 77mm) were used for the experiments as workpieces. In this study, experimental variables such as circumferential speed, magnetic flux density, abrasive grit size, and quantity of Abrasives were considered. The finishing characteristics of magnetic abrasives were analysed by measuring the surface roughness, which was blunt faster and need to be changed more frequently. The machining performance decreases with the increase in circumferential speed of workpiece beyond a certain value i.e. after 1000 rpm. The material removal rate (MRR) goes on increasing with increase in circumferential speed. At low value of workpiece-pole gap, magnetic abrasive brush is stronger and can take deeper cuts to remove more amount of material from the workpiece. This effect will further escalate with the increase in circumferential speed.

Effect of magnetic flux density (MFD) on finishing characteristics

The MFD was varied between 0.4 to 1.2 T. Fig. 4 shows the variation of PISF and MRR with MFD in the condition of 750 rpm speed, abrasive grit size 200 m, 12 gm quantity of abrasives supplied. The magnetic field controls the abrasive configuration and the magnetic

force on the abrasive, which determines the abrasive behavior and defines the finishing characteristics. The Ra increases with increase in voltage because of the fact that higher voltage to the electromagnet generates more number of lines of magnetic force, and therefore higher flux density in a specified gap. Hence, strength as well as area of contact of the magnetic brush with workpiece increases with increase in voltage, leading to a greater number of indentations into the workpiece. Therefore, normal magnetic force increases leading to an increase in cutting force due to increased rigidity of the FMAB. Hence, surface finish increases. The PISF starts decreasing after 1.0 T of MFD. As the current/magnetic field strength increases, the magnetization of iron particles increases hence they come closer to each other. The material removal rate The quantity of abrasives was varied between 8 to 20 gm. the variation of PISF and MRR with quantity of abrasives in the condition of 750 rpm speed, 0.6 T of MFD, abrasive grit size 200 m and 30 minutes time of finishing The percentage improvement in the surface finish starts increasing as the quantity of abrasives increases to certain extent and then PISF starts decreasing. The material removal rate increases with the increase of the magnetic abrasive quantity up to certain extent beyond which it starts decreasing. An increase of the supplied amount of magnetic abrasive mixture increases the number of abrasive cutting edges and so the magnetic force acting on the abrasive increases which results in more stock removal.

Effect of Speed on finishing characteristics

The speed was varied between 500 to 1250 rpm. Figure 3 shows the variation of PISF and MRR with speed in the condition of 200 m abrasive grit size, 0.6 T MFD, 12 gm quantity of abrasives supplied. The percent improvement in surface finish (PISF) starts increasing as the circumferential speed of workpiece increases. As the circumferential speed of the workpiece increases, the cutting velocity also increases. Therefore, larger number of cutting edges takes part in machining, which results in more improvement in surface finish. But when the circumferential speed increases by keeping the same frequency of cyclic power supply to the

magnets, the accelerated wear takes place and the cutting edges (of abrasive powder) become blunt faster and need to be changed more frequently. The machining performance decreases with the increase in circumferential speed of workpiece beyond a certain value i.e. after 1000 rpm. The material removal rate (MRR) goes on increasing with increase in circumferential speed. At low value of workpiece-pole gap, magnetic abrasive brush is stronger and can take deeper cuts to remove more amount of material from the workpiece. This effect will further escalate with the increase in circumferential speed.

Figure: Effect of speed on PISF and MRR

Effect of magnetic flux density (MFD) on finishing characteristics

The MFD was varied between 0.4 to 1.2 T. Fig. 4 shows the variation of PISF and MRR with MFD in the condition of 750 rpm speed, abrasive grit size 200 m, 12 gm quantity of abrasives supplied. The magnetic field controls the abrasive configuration and the magnetic force on the abrasive, which determines the abrasive behavior and defines the finishing characteristics. The Ra increases with increase in voltage because of the fact that higher voltage to the electromagnet generates more number of lines of magnetic force, and therefore higher flux density in a specified gap. Hence, strength as well as area of contact of the magnetic brush with workpiece increases with increase in voltage, leading to a greater number of indentations into the workpiece. Therefore, normal magnetic force increases

leading to an increase in cutting force due to increased rigidity of the FMAB. Hence, surface finish increases. The PISF starts decreasing after 1.0 T of MFD. As the current/magnetic field strength increases, the magnetization of iron particles increases hence they come closer to each other. The material removal rate increases as magnetic flux density increases up to certain extent beyond which it becomes stable.

Figure: Effect of MFD on PISF and MRR

Effect of Grit Size on finishing characteristics

The experiments made use of four different grit sizes 120 m, 200 m, 300 m, 420 m. Fig. 5 shows the variation of PISF and MRR with abrasive grit size in the condition of 750 rpm speed, 0.6 T of MFD, 12 gm quantity of abrasives supplied. The PISF increases with increase in grit size up to certain extent, and then starts decreasing after size of 300 m. So the percent improvement in surface finish decreases with higher grit size. The material removal increases with increase of grit size. With increase of grit size, more cutting edges

take part in material removal. Hence material removal rate increases with increase of grit size.

Figure: Effect of Grit size on PISF and MRR

MICROSTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

To further study the improvement in surface finish, the surface was microscopically examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Fig. 7 shows the SEM micrographs of inner surface of a tube before and after finishing for 30 min. The observations reveal that the finishing of workpiece surface in this process is done by scratching or micro-cutting. The SEM analysis shows that the finished surface has fine scratches/micro-cuts which are farther distant apart resulting in smoothened surface. The initial surface profile has periodic peaks and valleys generated by boring. Most of the peaks have been sheared off to much smaller height by MAF resulting in improved surface finish.

In this work Al2O3 based sintered magnetic abrasives were used for internal finishing of cylindrical brass pipes. The Alumina (Al2O3) based sintered magnetic abrasives were prepared by blending of Al2O3 (10%) of 200 mesh size (74 m) and iron powders (90%) of

300 mesh size (51.4 m)), compacting them by a universal testing machine (UTM), sintering the mixture in a sinte ring set up at 1100C in H2 gas environment, crushing the compacts into small particles and then sieving to different ranges of sizes. The obtained sizes are 120 m, 200 m, 300 m, 420 m. The experimental conditions are shown in table 1and coded and real levels of independent variables are shown in table 2. Cylindrical Brass pipes (36mm 33mm 77mm) were used for the experiments as workpieces. In this work, experimental variables such as abrasive grit size, quantity of Abrasives, circumferential speed, magnetic flux density were considered. The finishing characteristics of magnetic abrasives were analysed by measuring the surface roughness, which was measured at four points before and after finishing using a Mitutoyo surface roughness. Also surface finish was analysed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Therefore finishing characteristics in terms of PISF (Percentage Improvement in Surface Finish) were analysed.

Percentage Improvement In Surface Finishing

The effect of three input parameters (Proportion of Ferromagnetic / Abrasive Powder, Condition of Application, Type of Magnetic Abrasive) on percentage improvement in surface finish (Ra) has been discussed in the following points: The developed magnetic abrasives (By adhesive bonding) are able to machine fine of brass surface with reasonable percentage improvement in surface roughness of the work piece . Type of magnetic abrasive is a significant factor. On comparison of magnetic abrasives made up by Adhesive bonding, sintering and with simply mixed iron powder and abrasive powder, it is found that there is discernible improvement in

surface roughness of workpiece by using developed magnetic abrasives, under all other similar conditions. In case of simply mixed magnetic abrasives and Silicon Carbide, the percentage improvement in surface roughness is not very good. But in case of Adhesive bonded iron-SiC, this value was upto the mark. In case of sintered iron-SiC, this value was maximum. The trend of variation of percentage improvement in surface roughness remains same for the three type of iron-SiC i.e. simple mixed, glued and sintered.

Process Parameter Study

This section deals with identifying the basic process parameters and various steps involved in process optimization. Figure 4.2 summarizes the important parameters useful for the development of process. Some of the important process parameters of interest are the spring loading compliance, abrasive size and type, polishing plate speed, spindle speed, liner joint, magnetic powder size, and viscosity of non-magnetic fluid. It should be noted that there are large number of parameters and the account of their mutual influence on one another was outside the scope of present study. For example, viscosity of non magnetic fluid was reported as 0.17 [Childs and Moss, 2001], but on addition of magnetic particle the viscosity will change. Such cross influencing parameters were not included. Childs [1995] and Raghunandan [1997] classified MFP as 3-body polishing model because loose abrasives were held between polishing pad and the worksurface. UMAP process works on the same principle as MFP. Hence, UMAP can be categorized into 3-body polishing model. Material removal

can be described in terms of 2-body or 3-body abrasion. Specifically, polishing falls into 3body abrasion category while grinding falls into 2-body abrasion. Further, researchers have assumed that the material removal occurs due to indentation fracture, scratching, plastic deformation, chemo-mechanical action, or combination of these mechanisms. Therefore, by choosing process parameters similar to that of MFP; high material removal, good sphericity, and surface finish can be achieved. The first step was to identify the polishing parameters that can be closely linked to make meaningful descriptions. For example, magnetic field analysis helps to define the dimensions of the magnets and their arrangement. Number of balls in a batch can be determined by initial geometric analysis of the ball diameter and chamber dimensions. Similarly, material removal behavior can be studied by knowing physical and chemical properties of the workmaterials, and the abrasive particles. Interaction of balls with various elements in contact accounts for the ball-motion study. Further, flash temperatures during polishing facilitates for chemo-mechanical polishing.

Results and discussions

The effects of interactions of different process parameters such as circumferential speed of the work piece, magnetic flux density (MFD), abrasive grit size and quantity of abrasives on percent improvement in surface finish (PISF) were analyzed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM).

Figure shows the effect of simultaneous variation of Speed (A) & Magnetic Flux Density (B) on PISF. At lower level of speed, with increase in MFD, PISF increases but at higher speeds when MFD increases surface finish decreases. At lower level of MFD with increase in speed, PISF first decreases then starts increasing but at higher level of MFD, with increase in speed PISF goes on decreasing. Figure shows the effect of simultaneous variation of Speed (A) & Grit Size (C) on PISF. At lower level of grit size, with increase in speed PISF first decreases then starts increasing but at higher level of grit size as the speed increases, PISF goes on decreasing.

Figure (a) shows the effects of Speed (A) and Quantity (D) on PISF. As quantity of abrasives increases at lower level of speed PISF increases up to certain extent but after 12 gm, PISF starts decreasing. At lower level of quantity with increase in speed, PISF first decreases then starts increasing but at higher level of quantity, PISF goes on decreasing with increase in speed. The PISF is better at lower level of quantity and higher level of speed. Figure (b) shows that at all levels of Magnetic Flux Density, with increase in grit size PISF decreases before it starts increasing. The %age surface finish improvement is better when both the parameters are at higher level.

Figure 5(a) shows the relationship between the Magnetic Flux Density (B) & Quantity (D), keeping the value of speed & grit size of abrasives to a constant level. As the value of MFD increases at lower level of quantity, the surface finish improves but decreases at higher levels of quantity. The surface finish is better at lower values of quantity, as the quantity increases the surface finish decreases. Figure 5(b) shows the relationship between the Grit size (C) & quantity (D) of abrasives, keeping the value of speed & Magnetic Flux Density to a constant level. The combined effect shows that surface finish is better at lower levels of grit size and quantity. With increasing the value of grit size & quantity, the value of PISF goes on increasing at different rates, reaches maximum value before it starts decreasing.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study can be summarized as follows: 1) This study showed the feasibility of using a magnetic field assisted finishing process with Al2O3 based sintered magnetic abrasive particles for the internal finishing of brass tubes and gained an understanding of the mechanism involved. 2) The process removes material from the peaks of the uneven surface to generate a smooth surface and achieves surface finishes as fine as 0.05 m in surface roughness (Ra). 3) It is concluded from the results and discussions that Percent improvement in surface finish (PISF) was significantly affected by magnetic flux density, quantity of abrasives, interactions between rotational speed of workpiece & magnetic flux density, rotational speed & grit size, rotational speed & quantity of abrasives, magnetic flux density & grit size, magnetic flux density & quantity of abrasives.

References

[1] Jain, V.K., Prashant, K., Behra, P.K., and Jayswal, S.C. (2001) Effect of Working Gap and Circumferential Speed on the Performance of Magnetic Abrasive Finishing Process,Wear, pp. 250:384390.

[2] Khairy A.B. (2001), Aspects of surface and edge finish by magnetoabrasive particles, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, Vol. 116, pp.7783. [3] Kim J-D. (2003) Polishing of ultra-clean inner surfaces using magnetic force, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Vol. 21, pp.9197. [4] Lin, C-T., Yang, L-D. and Chow, H-M. (2007) Study of magnetic abrasive finishing in free-form surface operations using the Taguchi method, International Journal of Advance Manufacturing Technology, Vol. 34, pp.122130. [5] Mori, T., Hirota, K., and Kawashima, Y. (2003) Clarification of Magnetic Abrasive Finishing Mechanism, Journal of Materials Possessing Technology, pp.143144. [6] Shinmura T., Takazawa K., Hatano E. and Aizawa T. (1984) Study on Magnetic Abrasive Process, Bull Japan Society of Prec. Engg. Vol. 18, No. 4 pp. 347348. [7] Shinmura, T., Takajava, K., and Hatano, E. (1985) Study on Magnetic Abrasive Process Application to Plane Finishing Bulletin of Japan Society of Precision Engineering , vol. 19(4), pp. 289291.