Polishing trajectory planning of three-dimensional vibration assisted finishing the structured surface

There are extremely wide application fields for the structured surface because of excellent properties. Sometimes it must be polished finally in order to meet the practical requirements. It is very meaningful to explore a kind of vibration assisted polishing method suitable for the structured surface because vibration-assisted machining has been widely proved an effective finishing technology. A novel three-dimensional vibration assisted polishing technology is put forward in this work, and the polishing trajectory planning about finishing the structured surface is also further investigated. This polishing system consists of two parts: the machine tool and a three-dimensional vibration device. The machine tool provides the machining path, and the three-dimensional vibration device provides the vibration locus. The three-dimensional polishing trajectory is generated skillfully by combining machining path and vibration locus. When the parameters about workpiece surface and two-dimensional vibration are given, the projection method is proposed in this study to establish the models about the vibration locus and polishing trajectory in three-dimensional space. The effects of phase and frequency on the distribution features of the polishing trajectory are analyzed by using the simulation results in detail. It is concluded that the phase has effects on the local distribution density of the polishing trajectory, and the vibration frequency has effects on the shape of the polishing trajectory. The polishing trajectory suitable for the harmonic mesh surface is presented. Many polishing experiments were carried out, and the experimental results show that this three-dimensional vibration polishing technique is very suitable for polishing the structured surface.