Micromachining of aluminum pipes using magnetic abrasive finishing

The demand for highly finished surfaces has increased dramatically in recent years. There are obstacles toward fulfilling the requirements for creating such finished parts. Disability of traditional surface finishing methods, which is due to particular shape and geometry of work pieces, and tool inaccessibility to every feature of work pieces are samples of such obstacles. This has lead to innovating new finishing processes. One of these methods, which uses moving abrasive particles in magnetic field, is called magnetic abrasive finishing of machined surface roughness, an approach to optimize the principles of this process. In this research, some effective parameters on surface roughness such as magnetic flow density, process time, amount of magnetic abrasive powder, and rotational speed of work piece have been tested and roughness sensation against these parameters has been studied. According to the results, using permanent magnets of 1 T, the amount of 8 g of ilmenite powder of mesh 150, rotating speed of 750 rpm, and 30-40 min of process time, will result into a surface roughness of 0.45 μm R_a from the original value of 2 μm R_a under other conditions kept on their best values.