Performance analysis of surface polishing for aluminium 6061 in newly developed electrolytic magnetic abrasive finishing

The surface-finishing (SF) of parts is utilised in sectors including, automotive, aircraft, health devices, and electronics industries. This study has described the finishing of Aluminium-6061 circular-bar work specimens in a newly developed electrolytic magnetic abrasive-setup, which can further be utilised for manufacturing wings and fuselages in aircrafts. Annealing was performed after mechanical alloying to prepare the abrasive-powder. The overall performance of the setup was evaluated based on the output parameters of surface roughness (SR) enhancement. Process Parameters (PP)-based Multiobjective Optimisation including the Response surface methodology (RSM) approach, was then employed to optimally utilise the process factor parameters. The input-parameters showed prominent effects on SR enhancement, such as machining-time (MT), workpiece rotational speed (WRS), electrolytic-concentration (EC), % abrasive particle weight fraction (APWF), and abrasive mesh size (AMS) of the abrasive-particles. A predictive model was developed to optimise PP for enhancing SF using the RSM technique. The optimal conditions for maximum improvement in surface-quality were determined as follows: MA (A) = 30 min, WRS (B) = 600 rpm, EC (C) = 25 g/L, APWF (D) = 15%, and AMS (E) = 400#. Under these conditions, the process achieved a maximum percentage improvement in SF of 53.19%.