A novel magnetic field-assisted polishing method using magnetic compound slurry and its performance in mirror surface finishing of miniature V-grooves

A novel magnetic field-assisted polishing technique was proposed for finishing 3D structured surface using a magnetic compound (MC) slurry. The MC slurry was prepared by blending carbonyl-iron-particles, abrasive grains and α-cellulose into a magnetic fluid which contains nano-scale magnetite particles. An experimental setup was constructed firstly by installing an oscillation worktable and a unit onto a polishing machine. Then, experimental investigations were conducted on oxygen-free copper workpiece with parallel distributed linear V-grooves to clarify the influence of the polishing time and abrasive impact angle on the grooves surface qualities. It was found that (1) the groove form accuracy, i.e. the form retention rate η varied with the polishing locations. Although the form retention rate η deteriorated during the polishing process, the final η was greater than 99.4%; (2) the effective impact angle θm affected the material removal and form accuracy seriously. An increase of the absolute value θm resulted with an increase of material removal rate and a decrease of the form accuracy; (3) the work-surface roughness decreased more than 6 times compared with the original surface after MC slurry polishing. These results confirmed the performance of the proposed new magnetic field-assisted polishing method in the finishing of 3D-structured surface.