An investigation into the surface characteristics of burnished cast Al-Cu alloys

Burnishing is considered as a surface finishing process. In this process the metallic surface of the workpiece undergoes plastic deformation by the pressing action of a hard and highly polished rotating burnishing ball or roller. In the present work an attempt was made to study the effects of different burnishing parameters (force, speed and feed) on surface roughness and hardness of cast Al-Cu alloys. The experiments were conducted with a simply designed ball burnishing tool. The results obtained show that an improvement in surface characteristics can be achieved by the application of this process on cast Al-Cu workpieces. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.