A Study of Abrasive Flow Machining on EDMed Surfacs of Tool Steel

방전가공된 공구강표면의 연마재 유동가공에 관한 연구

A relatively new non-traditional finishing process called Abrasive Flow Machining(AFM) is being used to deburr, polish and radius workpiece or produce compressive residual stresses by flowing an abrasive-laden viscoelastic compound across the surface to be machined. This paper presents the effects of AFM on surfaces of tool steel produced by EDM and W-EDM. Using AFM, white layer produced by EDM is erased almost equally and the amount of metal removal is significantly affected the initally machined surface condition of workpiece. The dimension of workiece is enlarged and its surface roughness is improved as AFM time is increased. The optimal AFM time can be established from the experimental results. It is considered that the grinding method lide AFM is useful to grind complex or slim geometry of workpiece even. Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM) was used to study the surface characteristics of the workpiece before and after AFM.