Study of Internal Finishing of Austenitic Stainless Steel Capillary Tubes by Magnetic Abrasive Finishing

This paper studies the internal finishing of capillary tubes using a magnetic abrasive finishing process. Such tubes are used with nanoscale technologies and meet the demands of the present age in medical and chemical equipment. The finishing characteristics are influenced by the magnetic abrasive behavior against the inner surface of the capillary, which is controlled by the supplied amount of magnetic abrasive and the magnetic force acting on it. The development of the finishing unit identifies the characteristics of the magnetic field, which controls the magnetic force, required for the necessary magnetic abrasive behavior. Finishing experiments using SUS304 austenitic stainless steel capillary tube with 800μm inner diameter demonstrate the effects of the supplied amount of the magnetic abrasive on the finishing characteristics, and the results suggest a standard method to determine the amount to achieve sufficient finishing. The run-out of the capillary while rotating at high speed under the cantilever tube support method causes instability of the magnetic abrasive behavior. The effects on the finishing characteristics are discussed, and a method to diminish the run-out is applied. Accordingly, this paper presents the conditions required for the internal finishing of capillary tubes and proposes methods to realize them. The internal finishing of 400μm inner diameter capillary tubes conveys an understanding of the mechanisms involved and demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed methods.