Study of the simultaneous Grinding/Ball-burnishing of AISI 4140 based on finite element simulations and experiments

In the manufacturing field, a growing interest is being held to the environment, to sustainability and more precisely saving energy and time. Combining thermomechanical with pure mechanical processes is an eco-friendly and profitable technique. In this paper, it is proposed to combine grinding and ball-burnishing processes. Further from reducing time, energy and cost of the manufacturing operations, this original combination is imagined to take benefit from thermomechanical history occurring while grinding to optimise ball-burnishing process in order to enhance the workpiece surface integrity. In this paper, the impact of this newly developed process on the surface and subsurface behaviour is studied through experiments and 3D FEM simulations. It is shown that performing simultaneously grinding and ball-burnishing processes leads to a thick surface layer up to several millimetres with compressive residual stresses state. This is an interesting result to increase sustainability of metallic workpieces by enhancing wear resistance, fatigue strength and fatigue lifetime.