Investigations on wear behavior of Magnetic Field Assisted Abrasive Finished SS316L material

Abstract Austenitic stainless steel (SS316L) is one of the important engineering materials used widely in biomedical implants, due its superior mechanical properties and excellent wear resistance and corrosion. Wear Resistance and surface finish are the important properties governing the suitability of the material to be a bio implant. Traditional finishing of SS316L using grinding process results in micro-cracks due to work hardening of the surface, which leads to reduced strength and reliability of the finished parts. Recently, Magnetic Field Assisted Abrasive Finishing (MFAAF) process has gained a lot of interest among the researchers, due its cost effectiveness, and better control of finishing forces using the magnetic field. In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare the reciprocating sliding wear behaviour of SS316L grinded samples and MFAAF finished surfaces with the load of 50N. The wear studies were carried out on samples before and after MFAAF process for comparative purposes. From the wear test, it is found that the wear rate of the MFAAF finished surfaces is about three times less than the grinding finished surface. In addition, Scanning electron microscopy has been used to interpret wear behaviour in grinded samples and MFAAF finished surfaces; their microstructures were observed and results are presented.