Experimental investigations into sintering of magnetic abrasive powder for ultrasonic assisted magnetic abrasive finishing process

The importance of magnetic abrasive powder (MAP) in finishing the surface of work materials as a flexible cutting tool in the presence of a magnetic field during the ultrasonic assisted magnetic abrasive finishing (UAMAF) process is quite evident. A sufficiently intense magnetic field provides the desired magnetic force to the iron particles. This holds nonmagnetic abrasive particles firmly and thus makes flexible chains. However, at higher rotational speeds of the magnet due to the requirement of high centripetal force, the chains start flying away from the finishing zone. In the present work, to overcome this deficiency, bonded MAPs were developed using the sintering technique. The effect of various process parameters on the magnetic property (magnetization) of sintered MAPs was investigated. Design of experiments (DoE) was planned as per the L-8 orthogonal array of the Taguchi method, and magnetizations along with M-H curves for all eight different MAPs were measured. Subsequently, analysis of experimental data was carried out using various techniques to optimize the process parameters. It was observed that sintering temperature affects magnetization the most. Scanned microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were also carried out to investigate bonding strength in sintered MAP.