Research of the Ball Burnishing Impact over Cold-Rolled Sheets of AISI 304 Steel Fatigue Life Considering Their Anisotropy

The present work focusses on the research of the plastic deformation accumulated effect obtained after two different plastic deformation treatments, over the fatigue life of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel. The research is focused on ball burnishing as a finishing process to form specific, so-called “regular micro-reliefs” (RMRs) on a pre-rolled stainless-steel sheet. RMRs are formed using a CNC (Computerized Numerically Controlled) milling machine and toolpaths with the shortest unfolded length, generated by an improved algorithm, based on the Euclidean Distance calculation. The effect of the predominant tool trajectory direction during the ball burnishing process (which can be coinciding or transverse with the rolling direction), the magnitude of applied deforming force, and feed-rate is subjected to evaluation using Bayesian rule analyses of experimentally obtained results for the fatigue life of AISI 304 steel. The obtained results give us reason to conclude that the fatigue life of researched steel is increased when directions of pre-rolled plastic deformation and the tool movement during ball burnishing are coincident. It also been found that the magnitude of deforming force has a stronger impact over the fatigue life, than the feed-rate of the ball tool.