A Study of Processing Al 6061 with Electrochemical Magnetic Abrasive Finishing

Abstract Recently, obtaining the smooth surface of low roughness with high efficiency is increasingly desired in mechanical manufacturing. However, it is difficult for the traditional finishing technologies to satisfy both of surface quality and machining efficiency. A hybrid machining method including two or more process makes it possible to solve the problem. This paper presents a compound process (EMAF), which is a combination of electrochemical machining (ECM) and magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF). A novel tool that is capable of adapting to the two processes of different characteristics is designed and a comparative experiment has been made to investigate the effect of EMAF process. The result shows, the EMAF process is able to obtain better surface quality and higher material removal compared with traditional MAF. In operation, the ECM process must cooperate with the MAF process and the ECM must be kept in the passivation status. By means of optimal parameters selected, the surface roughness Ra can down to 0.2 μm from 1.3 μm in a few minutes when the EMAF technology is used to process Al 6061.