20-09-2008, 10:49 PM
The recent increase in the use of hard, high strength and temperature resistant materials in engineering necessitated the development of newer machining techniques. Conventional machining or finishing methods are not readily applicable to the new materials like hastalloy, nitralloy, waspalloy, nimonics, carbides, ceramics etc.
Conventional machining processes when applied to these newer materials:
1. Are uneconomical,
2. Produce poor degree of surface finish and accuracy,
3. Produce some stress,
4. Highly insufficient.
Newer machining processes may be classified on the basis of nature of energy employed. Abrasive flow machining (AFM) is relatively new process among non-conventional machining processes. Low material removal rate happens to be one serious limitation of almost all processes. Magneto abrasive flow machining is a new development in AFM.
With the use of magnetic field around the work piece in abrasive flow machining ,we can increase the material removal rate as well as the surface finish. The various parameters and their effects on the performance of magneto abrasive flow machining have been presented.
