Influence of the stiffness of burnishing tools on process force and surface quality of EN AW-2007 and C45 workpieces

Burnishing is a highly efficient surface finishing process, which is also more sustainable compared to grinding. Such processed surfaces are characterized by a low roughness and an increased hardness. In recent years, the interest in the process grew due to the steady adoption on flat and free-form surfaces. Especially the latter may benefit from a soft burnishing tool, due to the nearly constant burnishing force and therefore a less strong interaction with geometric imperfections of the free-form surface. In this paper, the influence of the burnishing tool stiffness on the surface features indent, bulge and roughness are shown. Several low and one high stiffness burnishing tool were investigated. As evaluation data, the burnishing force and the finished surface were measured. As shown in this paper, soft tools result in a constant force and can improve surface quality.