A Study on the Abrasive Gels and the Application of Abrasive Flow Machining in Complex-Hole Polishing

Abstract The characteristics of abrasive flow machining (AFM) make it a suitable method to polish complex holes and curved surface. Anyway, the traditional abrasive flowing machining (AFM) methods have difficulty achieving uniform roughness of radial distribution in polishing of complex holes due to the non-uniform abrasive forces. The abrasive media are the key elements that dominate the polishing behavior in AFM process. However, commercial abrasive media are very expensive, and not every user can afford the prices. Therefore, lower-cost and effective abrasive media are developed to improve the surface roughness of the WEDM workpieces in this research. Besides, the application of abrasive gels with a helical passageway is proposed to create a multiple motion of abrasive medium and to obtain the even surface of the complex holes in AFM process.