New criterion of grain size choice for optimal surface texture and tolerance in belt finishing production

The basics of the belt finishing process are not well understood yet because it is difficult to define the relationships between process variables and surface characteristics particularly from the point of view of surface roughness and tolerance. For this reason, the optimal working variables of the belt finishing process are not yet predictable. This work is devoted to track the effect of the abrasives grains size. The optimal abrasives grains size is firstly identified by comparing the initial and the finished surface topographic signature on a wide range of surface wavelengths. The analysis method is based on a multi-scale characterization using the continuous wavelets transform. It makes it possible to define a criterion as for the choices of the optimal abrasive grains size of the belt finishing process for a given workpiece surface.