Contact Forces in Unguided Vibratory Finishing

In vibratory finishing the material removal rate is influenced by the contact forces between work piece and media. In this paper a measurement system is presented which is capable of measuring the contact forces between work piece and media in unguided vibratory finishing. The unique feature of the measurement system is its completely wireless construction. The measurement results are not influenced by wires of the force sensor system including the electrical power supply and the data logging. By means of this measurement system, contact forces can be measured in unguided vibratory finishing processes for the first time. Furthermore, the influence of media size and adjustment of the unbalance motor like revolution speed, phase angle and mass distribution between the upper and the lower eccentric weight was investigated.