Experimental study on micro-abrasive slurry jet for polishing mold steel

Polishing mold steel by using micro abrasive slurry jet (MASJ) is analyzed as well as the relationship between the processing parameters and the surface quality of workpiece. Results indicate that the abrasive size is proportional to the surface roughness, and is not related with the initial R_a value of the workpiece. In the case of remaining other parameters unchanged, there is an optimal combination of travel speed 4 mm/s, working pressure 0.7 MPa, stand-off distance 5 mm and abrasive concentration 75 g/L to achieve optimized surface quality of workpiece. It is also found that polish quality of alumina is higher than that of silicon carbide, and that the larger the nozzle diameter, the smaller the surface R_a value. The surface roughness value is minimum when the polishing pitch is 1.25D.