Edge Burnishing benefit - High tech research

[ddean]

The bottom line that I take from what I got through is this:

Burnishing work-hardens steel & thereby makes it more durable.

This point is in addition to the use of burnishing for sharpening.

A sample of the article I skimmed:

" ......using low plasticity burnishing (LPB) to introduce a deep surface layer of compressive residual stress. "
"..... application of Low Plasticity Burnishing (LPB) to increase the damage tolerance and fatigue strength of a ...fan blade.... fatigue life limited by the occurrence of leading edge foreign object damage (FOD) ......"
"...... an order of magnitude improvement in damage tolerance. Fatigue life modeling confirmed the HCF strength achieved, and suggests FOD tolerance can be further increased by optimizing the size and shape of the compressive zone."

http://www.lambda-research.com/239.pdf

I can read these engineering articles if I have too,
but my eyes start to cross after about two minutes.

http://www.lambda-research.com/publica.htm
contains further articles if you want to try to wade through them.

 

[Kismet]

So, they are saying that pushing down on stuff compresses it and makes it harder?

good to know.

(I DO love engineers, but sometimes you ask what time it is, and they give you the specs on a watch. )

 

[raghorn]

I think work hardening is caused by repeated cyclic stress on a metal. In some cases it's useful (burnishing), in others detrimental (fatigue).