Title: Identification of significant parameters and appropriate levels in honing of cylinder liners

Authors: M. Kanthababu, M.S. Shunmugam, M. Singaperumal

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai – 600 036, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai – 600 036, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai – 600 036, India

Abstract: Surface topography of cylinder liners influences the functional behaviour of internal combustion engines. The cylinder liners after boring operation are subjected to rough, finish and plateau honing operations in which parameters such as rotary speed, reciprocating speed, pressure and honing time are selected on the basis of operator|s experience. The present work is a comprehensive investigation carried out to identify the significant honing parameters and their values for different honing operations. The honing trials are carried out according to design of experiments. Before each operation, all cylinder liners are processed identically under conditions identified from the previous operation. Parameters considered for characterising the surface topography are roughness average (R_a) and all five bearing area parameters (R_pk, R_k, R_vk, M_r1 and M_r2). It is established in the present work that R_a can be replaced effectively by R_k in finish and plateau honing operations to control the final surface topography and these parameters (R_a, R_k) are influenced by honing pressure. For the most important bearing area parameter M_r2, the significant process parameters are medium honing time in finish honing and high reciprocating speed in plateau honing. These results are useful for controlling the honing operations during the manufacture of the cylinder liners.

Keywords: honing; cylinder liners; design of experiments; DOE; surface roughness; bearing area parameters; surface topography; internal combustion engines; IC engines; process parameters; finish honing; plateau honing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2009.023114

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2009 Vol.5 No.1, pp.80 - 96

Published online: 10 Feb 2009 *

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