Improvement in microhardness of 18/8 austenitic stainless steels via diamond burnishing

<ns3:p>Quantitative assessment of the synergy between strain and transformation hardening in the diamond burnishing (DB) of 18/8 austenitic stainless steels.Experimental design, analysis of variance, regression analyses, and a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm were employed to study and model the physical characteristics of surface integrity (SI).The drastic increase in surface microhardness for some combinations of the governing factors was due to the synergy between the strain and the transformation hardening effects.The validity of the results, discussion and conclusions was limited by the selected governing factors and their variation intervals. The results provide grounds for further study to include two additional governing factors (radius of the diamond insert and number of passes) and to apply different burnishing conditions (e.g., lubrication, cooling).The optimised DB process significantly improved the geometric and physical characteristics of the SI of the processed component. Understanding the correlation between SI and operating behaviour can significantly improve the fatigue, tribological, and corrosion behaviour of such a component.There was a lack of systematic, detailed information on the influence of the basic governing factors of the DB process on the surface microhardness and induced martensite of diamond-burnished 18/8 austenitic stainless steels. Our findings help fill this gap.</ns3:p>