Surface topography after deep rolling with milling kinematics

Deep rolling is a machining process which is used to decrease roughness and to induce compressive residual stresses into component surfaces. A recent publication of this research group showed possibilities to predict the topography during deep rolling of bars in a lathe. Although deep rolling can be used in a milling machine to machine flat specimens, it is still unclear, whether the topography can be predicted to a similar extend using this application. To investigate the influence of the machining parameters on topography, three experimental stages are performed in this paper on cast AlSi10Mg. First, single-track deep rolling experiments are performed under variation of the deep rolling pressure $$p_w$$ to find the relationship between $$p_w$$ and the indentation geometry. Here, a logarithmic relationship between deep rolling pressure and the indentation characteristics could be found that achieved a relatively high agreement. In the second stage, surfaces are prepared using multi-track deep rolling. Here, the deep rolling pressure $$p_w$$ and the lateral displacement $$a_b$$ are varied. The multi-track rolled surfaces were compared to an analytical model for the calculation of the theoretical roughness that is based on the logarithmic relationship found in the first experimental stage. Here, the limits of the analytical prediction were shown because high similarities between predicted and measured surfaces only occurred for certain deep rolling pressures $$p_w$$ and lateral displacements $$a_b$$ . To further investigate the limitations of this procedure, a novel tool concept, which utilizes the rotation of the machine spindle, is used in the third stage. Here, the generated surface can also be interpreted as a periodic sequence of spheric indentations as shown in the second experimental stage, whereas the measured surfaces differed from the expected surfaces. As a result of this paper, the predictability of the surface topography after deep rolling of flat specimens is known (minimum pressure $$p_{w,minAlSi10Mg}$$  = 5 MPa and minimum lateral displacement $$a_{b,minAlSi10Mg}$$  = 0.25 mm) and also first results regarding the final topography after using the novel tool concept are presented.