Effect of ball burnishing medium on the surface characteristics of free machining brass

Burnishing is becoming a promising surface finishing process to enhance materials surface properties.  The control of the various process parameters yields the desired surface characteristics in brass materials. In the current work, free machining brass specimens were burnished by Abrasive Assisted Burnishing(AAB) process and Plain Burnishing (PB) process using ball burnishing tool.  Response Surface Methodology was used to design the experiments in which Burnishing Force, Speed, Feed and Number of Passes were chosen as the process parameters. The minimum surface roughness achieved by PB and AAB was 0.1451 µm and 0.1041 µm respectively. The maximum surface hardness achieved using PB and AAB on the brass specimen was 207 HV and 248 HV respectively. The ball burnishing of free machining brass by AAB resulted in better surface characteristics as compared to the PB process.