1733

An investigation into the ball burnishing

of aluminium alloy 6061-T6
M H El-Axir
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Production Engineering and Mechanical Design, Menou fia University, Sdefr
Dfgre, Shebin El-kom, Egypt. email: ealaxir@yahoo.com
The manuscript was received on 13 January 2007 and was accepted after revision for publication on 5 September 2007.

DOI: 10.1243/09544054JEM818

Abstract: Burnishing has been widely used to produce excellent surface finish, work hardening,
and compressive residual stress by plastically deforming the workpiece surface. There have been
very few studies concerning the effect of burnishing parameters on the fatigue life. The purpose of
this work is to study the relationships between the fatigue life, the residual stress, and the ball
burnishing process parameters. Experimental work was carried out on a lathe to establish the
effect of three burnishing parameters, namely the burnishing speed, burnishing force, and
burnishing feed, on the residual stress and fatigue life of aluminium alloy 6061-T6. The residual
stress distribution in the surface region due to ball burnishing is determined using a deflection-
etching technique. The number of cycles to failure is determined for each specimen using a
universal-type fatigue machine, which is suitable for testing specimens requiring oscillatory or
reciprocating motion.
It was found that all input parameters have controlling effects, to different extents, on the
residual stress and fatigue life. The results showed that the residual stress plays an important
role in controlling the behaviour of fatigue. The burnishing force and burnishing feed are the
most important parameters controlling the values of the compressive residual stress which, in
turn, delay crack initiation, resulting in an increase in the fatigue life.

Keywords: burnishing process, fatigue strength, residual stresses, aluminium alloys

1 INTRODUCTION A literature survey shows that the burnishing pro-

As a post-finishing operation, the burnishing process
has a great versatility in its applications and so it can
be successfully and commercially utilized in modern
industries. Burnishing improves the surface charac-
teristics by plastic deformation of the surface layers
[1, 2]. It is essentially a cold-forming process, in
which the metal near a machined surface is displaced
from protrusion to fill the depressions. Besides pro-
ducing a good surface finish, the burnishing process
offers increased hardness, corrosion resistance, and
fatigue life as a result of the compressive residual
stresses produced. Residual stresses are probably
the most important aspect in assessing surface integ-
rity of a burnished workpiece because of their direct
influence on performance in service. Thus, control
of the burnishing process (burnishing conditions) in
such a way as to produce compressive residual stres-
ses in the surface region could lead to a considerable
improvement in component life.
cess improves the properties of the parts, for instance
increased hardness [3–8], surface quality [2, 3, 9–13],
increased maximum residual stress in compression
[3, 14, 15], higher wear resistance [16–19], increased
fatigue life [20], and decreased out-of-roundness
[21]. The parameters affecting the surface finish are
the burnishing force, feed, ball or roller material,
number of passes, workpiece material, and lubrica-
tion [2]. The review of previous work shows that
most of these investigators have studied the effect of
the burnishing parameters on some surface charac-
teristics (such as surface roughness). There have
been very few studies concerning the effect of burn-
ishing parameters on the fatigue life [22–24]. The
present paper emphasizes features of the develop-
ment of comprehensive mathematical models for
correlating the interactive and higher-order influ-
ences of the various burnishing parameters, such as
the burnishing speed, burnishing force, and feed on
the most dominant burnishing criteria, i.e. the fatigue

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1734 M H El-Axir

life and residual stress for achieving controlled burn-
ishing. The effects of three burnishing parameters on
the fatigue life (cycles to failure), the residual stress,
and the change in diameter of the burnished surface
were studied.
2 EXPERIMENTAL WORK
The workpieces were heated to 280 ˚C for 15 min
and then were furnace cooled to room temperature.
Also, the side surfaces and both the inner and the
outer surfaces of each specimen were carefully
polished to remove any surface region damage that
was produced during workpiece preparation, and
not removed by annealing.

2.1 Workpiece material 2.3 Burnishing conditions

In this study, aluminium alloy 6061-T6 was used as In this work, external ball burnishing tests were per-
the workpiece material. This material was selected formed under lubricated conditions. In order that
because of its importance in industry and its suscept- the effects of each parameter on the surface charac-
ibility to surface and subsurface damage when burn- teristics of the workpiece can be studied, only three
ished. The chemical analysis in weight percentages burnishing parameters were chosen, namely; the
and mechanical properties of this material are shown burnishing speed V, the burnishing force F, and the
in Tables 1 and 2 respectively. burnishing feed f. Other parameters such as the ball
diameter and lubrication were held constant
throughout the work. The burnishing conditions are
2.2 Design of the workpiece summarized in Table 3.
The material was received in the form of a seamless
tube that was machined into ring-shaped workpieces 2.4 Design and preparation of
having the dimensions shown in Fig. 1. It is probable the burnishing tool
that residual stresses are induced in the surface
region of the workpieces because of the machining Figure 2 shows a specially designed burnishing tool
involved in preparation; hence it was necessary to which consists of two steel parts. The base is held on
remove these stresses by annealing the workpieces. the lathe tool post whereas the other part is made to
hold the main ball freely. Carbon–chromium steel
balls with a 12 mm diameter and Rockwell C hardness
of 62 HRC and an average arithmetic surface rough-
Table 1 Chemical composition of the workpiece material
aluminium alloy 6061-T6 ness Ra of about 0.12 mm were used. These balls are
usually used in ball bearings. The ball holder was
Element Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Cr Zi Ti elastically supported by a precalibrated spring. It
Amount 0.4–0.8 0.7 0.15–0.4 0.15 0.8–1.2 0.04–0.35 0.25 0.15 should be pointed out here that, with this arrange-
(wt %) ment, the main ball was free to rotate with the rotation
of the specimen since the ball is set in contact with
the surface of the workpiece during the burnishing
Table 2 Mechanical properties of the workpiece material process, owing to the frictional forces developed. The
aluminium alloy 6061-T6 ball could be removed easily from the tool (head) for
changing or cleaning by unscrewing the head cover.
Tensile Yield Brinell Shear Yield
strength stress hardness strength modulus A precalibrated spring is used in order to reduce
(MPa) (MPa) (HB) (MPa) ( · 103 MPa) the sticking effect between the ball and the surface
310 276 95 207 (69) of the specimen. The spring is also used to measure
the applied force (the force perpendicular to the

Mandrel Workpiece Dims. in mm

4
φ 75
φ 65

Fig. 1 Workpiece geometry

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 An investigation into the ball burnishing of aluminium alloy 6061-T6 1735

6 3 5
7 2
8

9 1

Fig. 2 Detailed and assembly drawing of the proposed ball burnishing tool: 1, base; 2, head; 3, spring
seat; 4, back-up balls and active ball; 5, head cover; 6, calibrating spring; 7, dial fixture; 8, dial
gauge; 9, clamping screw

axis of rotation of the specimen) during the burnish- 4

ing process. The movement of the head due to the
applied burnishing force will cause compression on
the spring that was calibrated to measure the applied
burnishing force. 30°

φ 65
φ 75

2.5 Measurements
30°
In this work, the residual stress distribution, the
change in diameter, and the fatigue life (cycles to fail-
ure) were measured using standard techniques. Each
measurement will be described briefly in the follow-
ing sections.
Fig. 3 Fatigue test specimen after the burnishing process

2.5.1 Residual stress

components. These components are the stress
When the burnished rings are sectioned or a layer is
relieved because of the removal of a given layer of
removed from the burnished surface, a part of the
material, the stress relieved because of removal of pre-
residual stress in the surface region is relieved, thereby
vious layers, and the stress relieved because of the ini-
disturbing the present equilibrium condition. Because
tial sectioning of the ring. More details about the
of this, the remaining stresses in the surface are
electrochemical etching technique and the equations
redistributed, attaining a new equilibrium by produ-
for determining these three components of relieved
cing a change in curvature of the ring. The residual
stresses have been given elsewhere [27].
stress distribution in the burnished surface was deter-
It should be pointed and that two specimens were
mined in this investigation using a deflection-etching
clamped to the mandrel and burnished together in
technique [25]. A laser beam was used for the meas-
each test. One specimen was used to measure first
urement of the angular deflection of the specimen.
the change in workpiece diameter and then was pre-
The deflection-etching technique is based on the fact
pared to measure residual stress distribution, and the
that a machined component which contains residual
other specimen was used to determine the fatigue life
stresses will undergo a change in shape as the layers
after cutting by wire electrodischarge machining with
of material are removed from the surface. As the outer
no additional residual stress. Figure 3 shows the
layers are removed by electrolysis, the stresses are
fatigue test specimen after burnishing.
relieved and the remaining stresses are redistributed
until a new equilibrium position is reached. This
2.5.2 Fatigue life
change in shape can be measured, from which resid-
ual stress can be calculated. Castigliano’s second the- A universal fatigue-testing machine was used for
orem [26] is used to establish relationships between conducting the fatigue tests of burnished work-
the residual stress, the thickness of the removed layer, pieces. The variable throw crank of this machine has
and the deflection of the free end of the half-ring spe- a stroke range from 1 to 14 mm, which can be adjusted
cimen. It should be noted that the relieved stresses at by loosening the four screws around the face of the
a given layer of the test specimen consist of three crank. Rotating the eccentric is achieved by turning

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1736 M H El-Axir

the centre socket-head screw. The test fixture was
designed to hold the workpiece so that the ring work-
pieces could be subjected to repeat stress cycles. To
study the effect of the burnishing parameters on the
fatigue life of the workpieces, all the burnished rings
were fatigued under the same frequency of 10 Hz and
stress ratio of R ¼
1.
2.5.3 Change in the workpiece diameter
The ball burnishing process usually reduced the dia-
meter of the workpiece. The change in the workpiece
diameter was measured at different places along and
around each test tube using a horizontal microscope
with accuracy of 0.001 mm. For better results, the
average of six readings was obtained.
Box–Hunter [28] method, was found to be a suitable
technique for this study. In this work, each parameter
had five levels selected from practice, as shown in
Table 3, and a central composite rotatable design as
shown in Table 4 was used. Twenty experiments
were conducted with the combination of values as
shown in Table 3. This consists of nc ¼ 2k ¼ 8 corner
points at –1 level, na ¼ 2k ¼ 6 axial points at g ¼ –1.682
and a centre point at zero level repeated six times (n0)
to estimate the pure error. The values of each of the
five levels were coded to simplify the experimental
arrangement. The range of each parameter was coded
in five levels (
1.682,
1, 0, þ1, þ1,682) using the
transformation equations
2ðlog v
0:27Þ
ðSpeedÞ X1 ¼ þ1 ð1Þ
0:32

3 RESULTS AND MATHEMATICAL MODELS F
250

ðForceÞ X2 ¼ ð2Þ
100
The present experimental investigation studied the
effects of burnishing speed V, the burnishing force F, f
0:16
ðFeedÞ X3 ¼ ð3Þ
and the burnishing feed f on the residual stress, the 0:04
change in diameter, and the fatigue life. Therefore, a Figure 4 shows the results of residual stress distri-
simpler and more adequate experimental design, bution for some burnished specimens, as examples,
namely response surface methodology (RSM) with the which have been made according to the experimen-
tal design matrix (Table 4). It can be seen that the
residual stress is of a low compressive nature and
Table 3 Summary of burnishing conditions increases to a maximum value at depths in the range
Burnishing speed (m/s) 0.58, 0.89, 1.43, 1.86, 2.32
from 100 to 200 mm. The stress then decreases gra-
Burnishing force (N) 80, 150, 250, 350, 420 dually with a further increase in depth beneath the
Burnishing feed (mm/rev) 0.09, 0.12, 0.16, 0.2, 0.23 burnished surface. Also, according to this figure the
Ball (tool) diameter (mm) 12
Burnishing conditions Lubricated
depths of the deformed layer are not the same for
all experiments. Figure 4(a) shows the experiments

Table 4 Experimental design matrix and results

Burnishing Burnishing feed

Speed (m/s) force (N) (mm/rev)

Change in Maximum residual Fatigue life

Experiment Actual Coded Actual Coded Actual Coded diameter (mm) stress (MPa) (cycles to failure)
1 0.89
1 150
1 0.12
1 570.00
191.00 29 675.00
2 1.86 þ1 150
1 0.12
1 353.00
169.00 26 562.00
3 0.89
1 350 þ1 0.12
1 778.00
806.00 41 822.00
4 1.86 þ1 350 þ1 0.12
1 769.00
505.00 35 884.00
5 0.89
1 150
1 0.2 þ1 544.00
128.00 24 510.00
6 1.86 þ1 150
1 0.2 þ1 319.00
202.00 21 371.00
7 0.89
1 350 þ1 0.2 þ1 651.00
495.00 27 706.00
8 1.86 þ1 350 þ1 0.2 þ1 635.00
441.00 24 208.00
9 0.58
1.682 250 0 0.16 0 800.00
389.00 26 486.00
10 2.32 þ1.682 250 0 0.16 0 233.00
270.00 19 696.00
11 1.43 0 80
1.682 0.16 0 426.00
163.00 14 782.00
12 1.43 0 420 þ1.682 0.16 0 697.00
388.00 39 000.00
13 1.43 0 250 0 0.09
1.682 860.00
140.00 44 194.00
14 1.43 0 250 0 0.23 þ1.682 614.00
80.00 23 826.00
15 1.43 0 250 0 0.16 0 463.00
291.00 14 302.00
16 1.43 0 250 0 0.16 0 300.00
275.00 23 230.00
17 1.43 0 250 0 0.16 0 457.00
342.00 18 518.00
18 1.43 0 250 0 0.16 0 350.00
215.00 16 500.00
19 1.43 0 250 0 0.16 0 410.00
200.00 18 250.00
20 1.43 0 250 0 0.16 0 300.00
270.00 19 640.00

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 An investigation into the ball burnishing of aluminium alloy 6061-T6 1737

200 200

Residual stress distribution, MPa

Residual stress distribution, MPa

0 0

-200 -200

-400 -400
Test No. 1 Test No.2
-600 Test No.3 -600 Test No.4
Test No.5 Test No.9
-800 Test No.8 -800 Test No.11
Test No.12 Test No.20
-1000 -1000
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Depth beneath surface, µm Depth beneath surface, µm
(a) (b)

Fig. 4 Residual stress distribution for some experiments (see Table 4), as an example

Table 5 Student’s t test* for the three responses

Value of coefficient Computed t value Significance coefficient

Maximum Maximum Maximum

Fatigue residual Fatigue residual Fatigue residual
Coeff. life stress DD life stress DD life stress DD
b0 18363.32
260.89 378.912 14.96 12.33 12.89 18363.32
260.89 378.912
b1
2107.49 36.83
103.99 2.58 2.62 5.33
2107.49 36.83
103.99
b2 4994.92 141.674 110.007 6.13 10.09 5.64 4994.92 141.674 110.007
b3
5153.79 37.033
53.785 6.33 2.64 2.758
5153.79 37.033
53.785
b11 1888.06
50.27 40.34 2.38 3.68 2.22 1888.06
50.27 40.34
b22 3055.08
31.17 56.25 3.85 2.28 2.963 3055.08
31.17 56.25
b33 5572.64 27.35 118.316 6.237 2.00 6.233 5572.64 0.000 118.316
b12
398.000 50.87 52.12 0.374 2.774 2.04 0.000 50.87 0.000
b13 301.750
42.87
1.875 0.283 2.337 0.0736 0.000
42.87 0.000
b23
1929.50 43.13
25.125 2.22 2.351 0.986
1929.50 43.13 0.000

*The standard critical value of the t test; t0.05,16 ¼ 2.056.

where the depth of the deformed layer reached about Maximum residual stress ¼
260:8904 þ 36:8344X1
350 mm whereas Fig. 4(b) shows the experiments
141:6749X2 þ 37:0334X3
where the depth of the deformed layer reached
50:2699X12
31:1733X22
700 mm. It should be pointed out here that, to
50:875X1 X2
42:875X1 X3
deduce the mathematical model for residual stress,
þ 43:125X2 X3
only one value must be selected. The maximum
residual stress for each specimen is used. ð5Þ
Using the observed values of the response as shown
in Table 4, mathematical models which relate burn- DD ¼ 368:933
103:99X1 þ 110X2
53:79X3 þ 43:745X12
ishing response (the cycles to failure, the maximum þ 59:66X22 þ 121:72X32
residual stress, and the change in diameter of the work- ð6Þ
piece) to burnishing parameters have been proposed.
The less-significant coefficients were eliminated from It can be noted from the final equations that some
further analysis using Student’s t test [29]. Also, to coefficients were omitted. These coefficients are non-
check the adequacy of each model, the analyses of vari- significant according to Student’s t test. The results
ance were carried out by using the F-ratio test [29]. of the t test are presented in Table 5. The final
The response surface for the fatigue life (number of models which were also tested by variance analysis
cycles), maximum residual stress, and change DD (F test) indicated that the adequacy of the model was
workpiece diameter as functions of the third para- established (Table 6).
meters used in this work are Using these final models that were obtained by
Fatigue life ¼ 18 363:32
2107X1 þ 4998:9244X2 the RSM method, the relationships between the ball
burnishing responses (the fatigue life, the maximum

5153:792X3 þ 1665:78X12 þ 3186:735X22
residual stress, and the change in workpiece dia-
þ 5704X32
1929X2 X3 meter) and the significant variables are shown in
ð4Þ Figs 5 to 13.

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1738 M H El-Axir

Table 6 F test* for the three responses studied in the present work

Response Source Sum of squares Degree of freedom Mean square F ratio

Fatigue life First-order term 7.643 61 · 108 3 2.547 92 28.118
Second-order term 5.484 68 · 108 6 9.141 133 10.088 16
Lack of fit 9.336 33 · 107 5 1.867 266 2.060
Experiment error 4.530 626 · 107 5 9 061 253.0
Total 1.451 514 · 109 19 (¼N
1)

Maximum residual stress First-order term 311 472 3 103 824.2 38.586
Second-order term 210 633 6 35 105.56 13.047
Lack of fit 18 486.58 5 3697.316 1.374
Experiment error 13 453.5 5 2690.7
Total 554 046 19 (¼N
1)

DD First-order term 352 585 3 117 528.3 22.6353

Second-order term 235 952.6 6 39 325.43 7.5738
Lack of fit 868 57.99 5 17 371.6 3.34
Experiment error 25 961 5 5192.267
Total 701 356 19 (¼N
1)

*The standard value of the F ratio for the significance level a ¼ 0.05 at degrees of freedom 3 and 5 is F0.05(3,5) ¼ 5.4, at degrees of
freedom 6 and 5 is F0.05(6,5) ¼ 5.0, and at degrees of freedom 5 and 5 it is F0.05(5,5) ¼ 5.1.

It is worth mentioning that each curve represents

the effects of two input parameters while the third
parameter was kept constant at level 0 (see Tables 3
and 4). In the following, the burnishing results will
be discussed in terms of each of the burnishing
parameters.
Figures 5 and 6 show the effects of burnishing force
on the fatigue life of burnished surfaces at various
speeds and feeds respectively. From these figures, it
can be seen that fatigue life increases with an
increase in the burnishing force.
Figures 5 and 7 present the effects of burnish-
ing speed on the fatigue life for different forces and
feeds. The fatigue life considerably decreases with
an increase in the burnishing speed. Fig. 5 Effect of the burnishing force and speed on the
Figure 7 shows an interaction between the burn- fatigue life
ishing speed and feed. An increase in burnishing
speed at low feed decreases the fatigue life whereas
an increase in speed at high feed leads to an increase
in the fatigue life.
The influence of the burnishing feed on the fatigue
life is shown in Figs 6 and 7. In general the fatigue life
(number of cycles) decreases as the burnishing feed
is increased.
Figures 8 and 9 present the effect of burnishing
force on the maximum residual stress at different
speeds and feeds respectively. It can be seen from
these figures that there are two interactions; the first
is between burnishing force and speed as shown in
Fig. 8. At low speeds, an increase in the burnishing
force leads to a slight increase in the maximum com-
pressive residual stress. However, at high speeds, an
increase in force results in a considerable increase Fig. 6 Effect of the burnishing force and feed on the
in the maximum compressive residual stress. The fatigue life

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 An investigation into the ball burnishing of aluminium alloy 6061-T6
Fig. 7 Effect of the burnishing speed and feed on the
fatigue life
Fig. 8 Effect of the burnishing force and speed on the
maximum residual stress
Fig. 9 Effect of the burnishing force and feed on the
maximum residual stress
second interaction is between the force and feed, as
shown in Fig. 9. At burnishing forces up to about
170 N, an increase in the burnishing feed leads to a
slight decrease in the maximum compressive residual
stress whereas, at high burnishing forces, the max-
imum compressive residual stress increases consider-
ably as the burnished feed is increased. The highest
compressive residual stress was obtained with a com-
bination of a high burnishing force and a very low
burnishing feed.
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1739
Fig. 10 Effect of the burnishing speed and feed on the
maximum residual stress
Figures 8 and 10 show the effect of burnishing
speed on the maximum residual stress at various
forces and feeds. In general, the maximum compress-
ive residual stress decreases as the burnishing speed is
increased. There is an interaction between the burn-
ishing speed and force. At low forces, the maximum
compressive residual stress decreases as the burn-
ishing speed is increased whereas, at high forces, the
maximum compressive residual stress of the burn-
ished surface increases as the burnishing speed is
reduced. Figure 10 shows another interaction between
the burnishing speed and feed. At low burnishing
speeds up to about 1.7 m/s, the maximum compress-
ive residual stress decreases considerably as the burn-
ishing feed is increased whereas the maximum
compressive residual stress slightly decreases with an
increase in burnishing feed at burnishing speeds of
more that 1.7 m/s.
Figures 9 and 10 present the effect of the burnishing
feed on the maximum compressive residual stress at
various forces and speeds respectively. Figure 9 shows
an interaction between the burnishing feed and force.
It can be seen that, for very low to medium feeds,
the maximum compressive residual stress consider-
ably increases as the burnishing force is increased.
However, at high and the highest feeds, the maximum
residual stress decreases with an increase in burnish-
ing force. Figure 10 shows another interaction bet-
ween the burnishing feed and speed. An increase in
the burnishing feed at low speeds decreases the max-
imum compressive residual stress whereas an increase
in the feed at high speeds increases the maximum
compressive residual stress. The best results were
obtained at feeds in the range from 0.09 to
0.16 mm/rev with low burnishing speeds.
Figures 11 and 12 show the effect of burnishing
force on the change in workpiece diameter for differ-
ent speeds and feeds respectively. From these figures,
it can be seen that an increase in the burnishing force
leads to an increase in the change in workpiece
diameter.
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Fig. 11 Effect of the burnishing force and feed on the
change in diameter
Fig. 12 Effect of the burnishing force and feed on the
change in diameter
Fig. 13 Effect of the burnishing speed and feed on the
change in diameter
Figures 11 and 13 show the effect of the burnishing
speed on the change in workpiece diameter at vari-
ous forces and feeds. It can generally be seen that
the change in workpiece diameter decreases as the
burnishing speed is increased. The influence of the
burnishing feed on the change in diameter is shown
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M H El-Axir
in Figs 12 and 13. In general, the change in workpiece
diameter increases as the feed is reduced.
4 GENERAL DISCUSSION
In this section, the main reasons for the results
described in the previous section will be presented.
It should be noted that the kind of residual stress
and surface quality play an important role in fatigue
failure. The greatest advantage of the burnishing
process is the compressive residual stress in the sur-
face region which improves the fatigue life. The mag-
nitude of the compressive residual stress depends
upon the input burnishing parameters. The burnish-
ing force is one of the most important ball burnishing
parameters that affects the results of this process.
The increase in the burnishing force within the range
used in this work causes an increase in the amount of
surface deformation as the tool passes along the sur-
face of the workpiece. This will lead to an increase in
the maximum compressive residual stress as a result
of increasing the homogeneity of surface layers,
which, in turn, leads to an increase in the number
of cycles (the fatigue life). Also, the burnishing force
plays an important role in the change in workpiece
diameter as a result of increasing the ball pressure
on the workpiece surface. This results in compressing
most asperities, increasing the metal flow, and then
increasing the change in diameter.
The effects of the burnishing speed on the fatigue
life, the maximum residual stress, and the change
in diameter are generally similar. An increase in
the burnishing speed leads to a decrease in all the
responses studied in this work. Therefore, low speeds
are favourable because the deforming action of the
ball is smaller and the lubricant loses its effect
because there is insufficient time for it to penetrate
between the ball and workpiece at high speeds.
Also, the chatter that is usually induced at high
speeds, resulting in instability of the ball burnishing
tool across the workpiece surface, can be avoided at
low burnishing speeds. However, at low speeds, the
deforming action of the ball burnishing tool is greater
and metal flow is regular. It is believed that the
increase in the surface region deformation brought
about the maximum compressive residual stress.
The results show that the burnishing feed is one of
the significant parameters affecting the responses
studied in this work. This is obvious because of its
significant effect on the regularity of the metal flow
that leads to the filling of more voids that exited the
subsurface layer owing to machining (turning), or as
a metal defect.
It is believed that the interactions between the
ball burnishing process used in this work and the
maximum residual stress are due to the complex
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 An investigation into the ball burnishing of aluminium alloy 6061-T6
distribution of the residual stress in the surface
region of the burnished workpiece as a result of the
interaction of mechanical, thermal, and metallurgical
effects that occur simultaneously.
Finally, it can be reported that, because of the ball
burnishing process the fatigue life increases as a res-
ult of the reduction in the surface roughness due to
the burnishing action, the elimination of flaws on
the surface as the burnishing action causes the metal
to flow plastically, filling existing voids or defects and
setting compressive residual stresses in the outer
circumferential area of the workpiece.
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis of the experimental data and the
identified predictive models, the following conclu-
sions can be drawn.
1. The output responses of the burnished surface are
influenced by the three parameters used. The
burnishing force plays a major role and its effect
can be considered as the most important input
parameter.
2. The best results for cycles to failure were obtained
at the lowest value of the burnishing feed with the
highest value of burnishing force used in this work.
3. An increase in the burnishing force leads to a con-
siderable increase in the cycles to failure, and the
maximum values of both the compressive residual
stress and the change in workpiece diameter.
4. There is an interaction between the maximum
residual stress and both the burnishing force and
the burnishing speed. At low speeds, an increase
in the burnishing force leads to an increase in the
maximum compressive residual stress. However,
at high speeds, the maximum compressive residual
stress decreases with increasing burnishing force.
5. There is another interaction between the maxi-
mum residual stress and both the burnishing force
and the burnishing feed. At burnishing forces up
to 170 N an increase in the burnishing feed leads
to an increase in the maximum compressive
residual stress. However, an increase in the feed
at high forces leads to a decrease in the maximum
compressive residual stress.
6. An increase in the burnishing speed and/or
the burnishing feed leads to a decrease in both
the cycles to failure and the change in workpiece
diameter.
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