Effects of ultrasonic burnishing on the surface quality of corrosion-resistant tool steel using a hard-carbon-coated burnishing tool

Ultrasonic burnishing is a relatively new and effective method for improving the surface finish of metal parts. Burnishing strongly affects the surface quality, improving surface properties such as, surface hardness and surface roughness. Previous studied have observed that changing some burnishing parameters significantly affects the burnished surface quality. In this research, using a carbon-coated burnishing tool, tangential misalignment angles were varied on a corrosion resistant tool steel that has not been previously investigated. Two different burnishing tools were used to study their effect on surface quality and surface hardness. The results revealed that coated tungsten carbide tool has produced superior surface finish compare to non-coated burnishing tool which is the new finding. It is rather surprising that surface roughness has not increased as it typically happens during burnishing but a clear surface roughness enhancement was observed. The results showed a clear improvement in surface roughness (80-86%), whereas surface hardness did not change significantly.