IMPROVEMENT OF SURFACE PROPERTIES BY BURNISHING ON ALUMINIUM ALLOY

In roller burnishing is process, a hard and highly polished roller is pressed against a rotating component. This results in the plastic flow of material from the peaks of surface irregularities into the valleys, thereby reducing the surface roughness. The pressure applied causes the cold working of the component's surface which in turn improves micro-hardness, induces compressive stresses and refines the microstructure. This improvement in properties has a positive impact on the surface characteristics like corrosion resistance, wear resistance; fatigue life etc. The aim of the present research work is to study the feasibility of roller burnishing process, in enhancing the surface properties. The surface roughness, micro-hardness and micro-structure were examined in this work. Experimental work was carried out to determine the effect of roller burnishing on these characteristics for aluminium AA6063- T6. From the results obtained from the experiments, it was clearly observed that the effect of roller burnishing on improving some of the desired material properties was immense. It is observed that roller burnishing can be adopted as the surface finishing process to improve the surface properties of the component.