Experimental investigation into the surface integrity and tribological property of AISI 1045 steel specimen for barrel finishing

Abstract

Surface integrity is one of the important parameters that affect mechanical properties of an assembly like friction between mating parts and wear resistance. In this research, the effects of different barrel finishing conditions such as rotational speed, diameter of media and load of media on the surface integrity and tribological properties were systematically investigated for AISI 1045 steel, which is widely used for power transmission gears and shafts, aircraft landing gear and other friction pair parts. Their percentage change in surface roughness Ra, hardness and topography were analyzed by MarSurf roughness tester, a Vickers micro-hardness tester and ZeGage Plus optical profiler, respectively. The tribological property was analyzed using a ball-on-flat micro-tribological tester. Results indicated that barrel finishing process improved surface integrity of AISI 1045 and slightly decreased friction coefficient. The optimum process parameters were the diameter of 2 mm, the rotational speed of 360 r/min, and the load of 70 %. The predicted model of the %ΔRa was obtained by regression analysis and validated by the experimental observation.