Study of a ball-burnishing vibration-assisted process

This study refers to the study of the ball-burnishing process assisted by vibration. This study begins by considering that this vibration helps to make the development of this finishing process easier because it helps to deform the workpiece material more easily. Because a similar tool is not available in the market, a tool that can perform the study needed to be designed, characterised and manufactured to conduct the study by considering the critical components that are involved in the design and the physical model that characterises the operation. For these criteria, the tool operation is also characterised by evaluating the surface roughness that remains after the process occurs. Workpieces of aluminium and steel were used for the experimental validation. These results were compared to those obtained using the same tool without vibration. The roughness results obtained using the ball-burnishing vibration-assisted process improve compared to those obtained using the process without assistance for both materials tested.