PROCESS OF BURNISHING

AND HARDENING

WHAT IS BURNISHING?

Burnishing is the plastic deformation of a surface due to

sliding contact with another object.
Its a cold-working process in which plastic deformation occurs
by applying a pressure through a very hard and smooth ball or
roller on a metallic surface.
It smears the texture of a rough surface and makes it shinier.
Burnishing may occur on any sliding surface if the contact
stress locally exceeds the yield strength of the material.
There are several forms of burnishing processes, the most
common are roller burnishing and ball burnishing.
Ball burnishing, is used as a deburring operation especially
useful for removing the burr in the middle of a through hole.
Roller burnishing, or surface rolling, is used on cylindrical,
conical, or disk shaped workpieces.

HOW DOES IT LOOK?

ADVANTAGES

Short cycle time and elimination of set-up and auxiliary processing time.
For use with either conventional or CNC-controlled machines.
Complete processing in one setting.
Removes no material and generates no waste.
Easily reproducible.
Low lubricant requirements.
Low noise emission.
Long tool life.
No dimensional change through tool wear.
Mirror Finish in One Pass, Accurate Sizing, Close Tolerances, Eliminates
Lapping & Honing
Improved Metallurgical Properties - Work Hardened Surface, Increase in
fatigue strength,
No Additional Machine Investment - attachable to any Standard Machine
Tool Already Present in the Shop
Long Tool Life No Operator Skill Required Low Torque & Power
Requirements Maximum Parts Interchangeability

DEFINE HARDENING

metallurgical and metalworking process used to increase

the hardness of a metal.
hardness of a metal is directly proportional to the uniaxial
yield stress at the location of the imposed strain.
A harder metal will have a higher resistance to plastic
deformation than a less hard metal.

PROCESS IN HARDENING

The

HallPetch method, or grain boundary strengthening.

To obtain small grains

Work

hardening (also referred to as strain hardening or cold working) the material is

strained past its yield point.
plastic straining generate new dislocations.

Solid

solution strengthening
a soluble alloying element is added to the material desired to be strengthened,
and together
they form a solid solution.

Precipitation

is

hardening (also called age hardening)

process where a second phase that begins in solid solution with the matrix metal

precipitated out of solution with the metal as it is quenched, leaving particles of

that phase
distributed throughout to cause resistance to slip dislocations.
Martensitic

transformation, more commonly known as quenching and tempering.

hardening mechanism specific for steel.

APPLICATION
Material

hardening is required for many applications:

Construction

materials - High strength reduces the need for material

thickness which generally saves weight and cost.

Machine

cutting tools (drill bits, taps, lathe tools) need be much harder than
the material they are operating on in order to be effective.

Knife

blades a high hardness blade keeps a sharp edge.

Bearings

necessary to have a very hard surface that will withstand

continued stresses.

Armor

plating - High strength is extremely important both for bullet proof

plates and for heavy duty containers for mining and construction.

Anti-fatigue

- (Martensitic) case hardening can drastically improve the

service life of mechanical components with repeated loading/unloading, such
as axles and cogs.

Related videos on burnishing and hardening

a)Burnishing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl0_AMbqQB8
b)Hardening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzw5qQo-i4Y