EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HELICAL ABRASIVE FLOW MACHINE SETUP FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF WORKPIECE MATERIAL

Abstract

Abrasive flow machining (AFM), also known as abrasive flow deburring or extrude honing, is an interior surface finishing process characterized by flowing an abrasive -laden fluid through a work piece. During the study different medias, workpieces and pressure ranges were chosen. These fluids are typically very viscous, having the different plasticizers. AFM smoothens and decreases surfaces roughness, and is specifically used to remove burrs; polish surfaces form radii, and even remove material. These experiments were conducted between aluminium, brass, mild steel at a range of 10, 15, 20Mpa. When an abrasive mixed with a polymer of special rheological properties and forced through a restricting medium, the abrasive and polymer will act as a self-forming tool that precisely removes work piece material and improve the surface finish at those areas restricting to the medium flow. Different relationships between a number of sets of workpiece, media and pressure are obtained using TAGUCHI method and their analysis was performed over ANOVA technique. Styrene butadiene rubber which is the most common natural rubber has given improved outputs among other media. In the % improvement in the roughness came out to be 39.51% and 3.21mg for material removal analysis.