Abstract:

Aiming at the shortages of the tip-shaped electrode tool that is used in current researches on electrorheological(ER) fluid-assisted polishing, for example,requiring the polishing gap between tool and workpiece surface in order of magnitude of μm and corresponding high equipment positioning accuracy,as well as need for the auxiliary electrode to polish the non-conductive workpiece, a new type of integrated electrode polishing tool was developed. The construction of the tool was described and its electric field was calculated. With this tool the polishing gap can reach to the order of magnitude of mm. The tool can polish conductive as well as non-conductive workpiece. The polishing experiments were made on the workpiece of WC and optical glass with the new tool. The relationships between the surface roughness and electric voltage, rotating speed, concentration of abrasive particles, polishing time, etc.,were given by individualfactor experiments. The experimental results show that, after 10 min polishing, the surface roughness of WC workpiece is dropped from Ra 66.48 nm to 33.18 nm, and for optical glass from Ra 11.02 nm to 3.67 nm.

Key words: mechanical manufacturing and automation, cutting tool technology, electrorheological(ER) fluid-assisted polishing, integrated pole tool, surface roughness