Analysis of the Relative Velocity and Its Influence on the Process Results in Unguided Vibratory Finishing

Abstract

The relative velocity between workpiece and media has a strong effect on the material removal rate in vibratory finishing. Due to this fact, a measurement system in the form of a camera-integrated workpiece is presented in this paper, which is capable of measuring the relative velocity between the workpiece and the media in an unguided vibratory finishing process. The unique feature of this measurement system is the completely wireless construction, so that the results are not influenced by wires for the data transfers and the electrical power supply of the light-emitting diodes of the camera system. Furthermore, the influence of the media size and adjustments of the imbalance engine like rotational speed, mass distribution between the upper and the lower imbalance weights, and offset angle between the imbalance weights were investigated. The evaluation of the results has shown that the media size and the rotational speed of the imbalance engine are the major influence factors on the relative velocity between workpiece and media.