3D surface characterization of electrophoretic deposition assisted polishing of SS316L

Abstract

Electrophoretic deposition assisted polishing process (EPDAP) is a recently developed polishing process known to achieve nano finished surfaces. Literature reveals that very few studies have been conducted to analyze the electrophoretic deposition assisted polishing process. In this experiment, quantitative as well as qualitative assessment of surface characteristics obtained by EPDAP process of SS316L. The polishing tool with homogeneously organized and, uniformly dispersed micro abrasive grains by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was employed in this process. The experiments were conducted using statistical full factorial design (2 4) approach. The control parameters selected for were grit size, axial load, rotational speed and polishing time. Abrasive grains with blunt edges are easily ablated from the polishing tool by friction during EPDAP. Therefore polishing wheel was continuously refreshed by adding new abrasives. The experimental results are analyzed using ANOVA. The significant improvement in surface reflection after EPDAP process was observed. The optimum polishing performance for the surface finish was obtained at the grit size 2000, axial load of 12 N, rotational speed of 1500 rpm and polishing time of 10 min. This is the optimum parameter setting obtained under the conditions in which experiments was performed. The experimental result shows the surface roughness up to 0.04557 microns could be achieved in this investigation. Whose surface roughness before electrophoretic deposition assisted polishing was 0.75 microns. Thus a significant improvement in percentage in reduction surface roughness was 93.92% achieved. © 2012 Asian Network for Scientific Information.