What is burnishing

Burnishing can be carried out in a number of different ways. It simply requires rubbing the burnishing tool with the work piece with enough force to produce the plastic deformation. You can use a dedicated machine for this purpose or it can be done on a regular lathe or milling machine.

In dedicated machines the tool is attached to a motor which rotates around the work piece. The work piece is attached to the machine using a wise or magnetic table. When the rotating burnishing tool touches the workpiece it applies a degree of force. As the workpiece is moving from left to right the process of burnishing will take place. There are two main ways to inspect and rate the burnishing process The direct measuring option is able to determine a numerical value to the surface finish allowing you to compare and contrast with other burmishing processes.

The most popular instruments used are stylus probes which operate on electrical principles. Moving the stylus generates a voltage signal and there are pneumatic elements used to measure the actual surface finish. In this process a hard ball is pressed against the work piece surface. The burnishing process is mostly carried out on soft metals such as aluminum, brass, zinc and plastics but it can be performed on low carbon steel alloys. You must be logged in to post a comment. Facebook-f Linkedin Twitter.

What is Burnishing and what is it used for? November 7, EngineeringClicks. Burnishing is the process of rubbing metal with a small hard tool to compact the surface, creating a smooth finish and micro-hardness. During the burnishing process there are no chips and no material is removed from the work piece surface Burnishing is used to produce an array of products including cutting tools, turbine blades, air foils, curved pipes, optics and needles There are two different methods of burnishing know as roller burnishing and ball burnishing.

Burnishing is also known by various other names such as:- Super finishing process Ballizing process What is burnishing? Share on email Email. Share on facebook Facebook. Jedd Cole. This roller burnishing tool from Cogsdill is designed for bottoming operations, as the rollers extend slightly from the end of the toolholder.

This diagram shows a hypothetical part surface profile before and after roller burnishing. The end goal, as in any finishing process—abrasive or not—is to reduce the distances between peaks and valleys. Abrasive finishing tears off metal from the peaks, while roller burnishing accomplishes the same result without metal removal.

This sample part shows the surface finish before and after roller burnishing. The unburnished surface is on the left, the burnished surface on the right. How do you finish the surface of a metal part to a mirror-like sheen without putting it through an abrasive process like grinding? For some applications, roller burnishing could do the trick without actually removing any metal from part. In basic terms, burnishing is a method for polishing a surface, such as metal, through sliding contact with a harder object.

The burnishing tools offered by Cogsdill Tool for machining metal use highly polished tapered steel rollers, as you can see in the photo above. Machining a metal surface leaves microscopic peaks and valleys that are called roughness. Surface finishing, whatever the method, is about reducing the roughness average Ra value of the surface.

Basically, the Ra value is a formula that measures the average distance between the tops and bottoms of these points relative to the mean line, which cuts through them. The finer the surface finish, the shallower the valleys and shorter the peaks. The first noticeable difference between abrading and burnishing a surface to accomplish this peak and valley reduction is that the former removes metal from the part while the latter does not.

Abrasive finishing cuts or tears away the peaks in the surface, thereby bringing the average peak and valley distances closer together. English Language Learners Definition of burnish. Kids Definition of burnish. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Love words? Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different.

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