Characterization of Surface Integrity of 3D-Printed Stainless Steel by Successive Grinding and Varied Burnishing Parameters

Additive manufacturing (AM)’s ability to produce customized products with reduced material wastage and other advantages helped the technology to gain popularity in many industries. However, its poor surface integrity is its weak side, and to overcome this, additional post-processes are essential. Slide diamond burnishing, known for its enhancement of surface roughness, residual stress, microhardness, and other properties, was combined with grinding in this research after 3D printing of MetcoAdd 17-4PH-A to mitigate the mentioned shortcomings. This study aimed to analyze the effects of each process on surface roughness, residual stress (both on the surface and in-depth), and microhardness. Workpieces were ground with the same parameters and burnished with four levels of force, feed, and number of passes. The L16 Taguchi experimental design was used to optimize the process parameters and to study their effects. For surface roughness, the optimum parameters were found to be 60 N force, 0.02 m/min feed rate, and three passes. The longitudinal surface residual stress has optimal values at 80 N force, 0.02 m/min feed rate, and four passes. In the case of transverse surface residual stress, the optimal values were 60 N force, 0.17 m/min feed rate, and three passes. Microhardness was maximized with 60 N force, 0.02 m/min feed rate, and one pass. Additionally, the in-depth residual stress for selected surfaces was investigated, and 100 N force showed a deep burnishing effect. Further multi-objective optimization using desirability function analysis found that the optimal parameters for all responses were achieved at the fourth burnishing force level (100 N), the first tool feed level (0.02 m/min), and the fourth number of passes level (four passes). Ultimately, both grinding and burnishing processes exhibited significant enhancements in the measured parameters.