Effect of relative feeding direction on surface texture in abrasive cloth flap wheel polishing process

Automatic polishing of complex parts with flexible abrasive tools has received extensive attention due to its good compliance. Many parameters control the polishing process, but critical process parameters can significantly affect the polishing effect. As a specific case, the relative feed direction of abrasive cloth flap wheel (ACFW) polishing has not been studied enough. In this paper, two targeted experiments were carried out to reveal the removal characteristics of abrasive grains during polishing with the ACFW and the influence of relative feed direction on surface texture. The surface texture parameters are tested and analyzed, including roughness, waviness, and texture direction. Then the influence mechanism of relative feed direction is analyzed, and how to reasonably select the relative feed direction angle is discussed. The research results show that the polishing area is asymmetric relative to the project axis, and there are craters impacted by abrasive grains at the ACFW contact-in side, while the scratch on the contact-out side gradually becomes shallow to disappear. In single-line polishing, the roughness of longitudinal polishing is the best, and the waviness of oblique polishing is the best. The polished mark is along the feed direction by direct observation, but the texture direction observed by magnification is the cutting direction of abrasive grains. The characteristics of abrasive grain trajectory and contact force distribution can well explain the resulting surface texture difference.