Effect of ball-burnishing parameters on surface roughness and surface hardness of aluminum alloy 6013

Abstract Burnishing, or the chipless finishing process, can be effectively utilized in order to improve the surface roughness and surface hardness of a workpiece. This paper focuses on the effect of ball-burnishing parameters (burnishing speed, burnishing force, burnishing feed and number of passes) on the surface roughness and hardness of aluminum alloy 6013. The Taguchi method was utilized to specify the most influential parameters for surface roughness and surface hardness. In this study, the optimum ball-burnishing parameters for surface roughness were obtained for a single number of passes, a burnishing force of 150 N, a burnishing speed of 200 rpm and a feed rate of 0.1 mm × min−1. By contrast, the optimum ball-burnishing parameters for surface hardness were also obtained for a single number of passes, a burnishing force of 150 N, a burnishing speed of 400 rpm and a feed rate of 0.25 mm × min−1.