Oilstone Processing and Its Impact on the Surface Texture of Cylinder Bore

Honing is one of the abrasive-based machining processes to remove material through the asperity interaction between numerous stochastic grains distributed on oilstone (also called honing stone) and workpiece. Therefore, the oilstone surface topography characterized by grain morphology, size, posture and position distribution, protrusion heights and etc. is of great significance to understand honing mechanism in terms of establishing an accurate kinematic model and further analyzing the oilstone property's impact on honing process and honed surface texture characteristics including groove density, roughness heights, and plateau/valley amplitudes. Conventionally, two typical approaches have been employed to establish the surface topography of abrasive-based cutting tools: experimentally microscopic observation and backward modeling/simulation from the assumed ideal distribution laws such as Gaussian or uniform distribution for stochastic grain characteristics. The first method is usually time-consuming and only measures surface topography within rather small area, whereas the second one is highly dependent on the authenticity of assumed statistical distribution laws. To overcome these weaknesses, the research proposed a functional forward method (FFM) to accurately predict surface topography of oilstone based on simulating its manufacturing processes in succession to avoid distributional assumptions and geometrical simplification. The methodology takes into consideration five important stochastic characteristics of oilstone including grain morphology, size, posture, position distribution, and grain wear during honing process, to guarantee the credibility, authenticity, and generality of the surface topography generated from honing. Based on the oilstone surface topography, the kinematic simulation method (KISM) was applied to analyze the honed surface texture characteristics of cylinder bore with oilstone samples under different stirring times. Therefore, the methodology bridges oilstone manufacturing parameters, oilstone surface topography, and further the honed surface texture to provide a fresh insight into the parameter’s optimization of the oilstone manufacturing process by achieving a better control on the honed surface texture of the cylinder bore.