Burnishing characteristics of sliding burnishing process with active rotary tool targeting stainless steel

This paper investigates the burnishing characteristics of a developed sliding burnishing method with active rotary tool targeting a martensitic stainless steel. Two types of martensitic stainless steel, annealing (AN) stainless steel and quenching and tempering (QT) stainless steel, were targeted. The burnishing characteristics evaluated included surface roughness, profile, microstructure, subsurface hardness, bending property, and corrosion resistance. A sufficiently smooth surface, approximately Ra = 0.1 μm and Ra = 0.016 μm in both materials, respectively, was obtained using the developed burnishing method; irregular profile smoothing occurred due to the material flow of the subsurface. The subsurface hardness increased at a depth of 40 μm or more when using the developed burnishing method on the AN material, but no effect was observed for the QT material. Moreover, the bending yield point and strength of the sheet shape workpiece increased by applying the burnishing process to the AN material. The influence of the burnishing process on the bending properties was also observed for the QT material. Corrosion resistance, which evaluated by the salt-spray test, can be improved through the burnishing process in AN material.