Development of Grinding Robot System for Engine Cylinder Liner’s Oil Groove

An engine for marine propulsion and power generation consists of several cylinder liner-piston sets. And the oil groove is on the cylinder liner inside wall for the lubrication between piston and cylinder. The grinding processes of oil groove have been carried by manual work so far, because of the diversity of the shape. Recently, we developed an automatic grinding robot system for oil groove grinding of engine cylinder liners. It can cover various types of oil grooves and adjust its position by itself. The grinding robot system consists of a robot, a grinding tool head, sensors, a control system and setting equipment. The robot automatically recognizes the cylinder liner’s inside configuration by using a laser distance sensor and a vision sensor after the cylinder liner is placed on setting equipment. And grinding programs are generated on the basis of measured data. The grinding system of oil groove incorporating an industrial robot was successfully developed and can cover various cylinder types efficiently in this field. The developed system helps to increase productivity of cylinder liner and remove difficult works.