Development of magnetorheological finishing process for external cylindrical surfaces

The recent increase in demand for functional and technological requirements of the component results in the development of complex geometrical shapes and that too with close tolerances and fine surface quality. To fulfill the needs for finishing the external cylindrical surfaces such as groove, taper, step surfaces, and threads, an advanced finishing process based on magnetorheological (MR) fluid has been developed. The developed process can finish the external cylindrical surfaces with controlled magnetic field as likely similar to turning operation. Fine finishing of external cylindrical surfaces is a significant requirement in many functional applications. The wide applications of this present process can be valuable in automotive, machine tool production, valves manufacturing, and aerospace. A modified new MR finishing tool with flat and curved tip surface has been made to perform finishing on external cylindrical surfaces. The present cylindrical finished workpiece is useful in macaroni manufacturing machine. The surface roughness values Ra, Rq, and Rz are reduced to 54.41%, 51.65%, and 40% with flat tool tip surface and 80.88%, 81.32%, and 82.5% with curved tool tip surface in 90 min of finishing time. The overall results reported that the present process with curved tool tip surface is comparatively more useful in finishing the external cylindrical surfaces.