An Approach to the Calculation of Process Forces during the Precision Honing of Small Bores

Honing is an abrasive machining process that can produce very exact results regarding geometry, form and surface quality of the honed work piece. It is mainly used as the final finishing operation for ready-made bores and has to meet high demands regarding process stability and repeatability. As it can create a high ratio of bearing contact area to total area together with a high surface quality it is often used for highly stressed parts. During the process, the honing tool combines three movement components: a rotation around the tool axis, an oscillation along the tool axis and a radial feeding movement of the honing stone. The interface between honing stone and workpiece and the movement of the honing stone are very important for the process. Nowadays, there are two different control strategies for the feeding movement of the honing stone: feed-controlled and force-controlled honing. While force-controlled honing tries to keep a constant process force, feed-controlled honing feeds the honing stone in certain steps in certain time intervals. The force-controlled approach can bring better results of the process regarding the quality parameters and the tool wear. But to be able to hone force-controlled the correlation of the process forces has to be known. This paper presents a first theoretical approach to the relations beweeen the forces during the honing process. Some parameters that are needed for the calculation are derived from experimental results. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.