Surface finishing is a broad range of industrial processes that alter the surface of a

manufactured item to achieve a certain property. Finishing processes may be employed to:
improve appearance, adhesion, solderability, corrosion resistance, chemical resistance, wear
resistance, hardness, modify electrical conductivity, remove burrs and other surface flaws, and
control the surface friction In limited cases some of these techniques can be used to restore
original dimensions to salvage or repair an item.

Surface finishing processes can be categorized by how they affect the workpiece:

 Removing or reshaping finishing

 Adding or altering finishing

Mechanical processes may also be categorized together because of similarities the final surface
finish.

Adding and altering

 Blanching
 Case hardening
 Ceramic glaze
 Cladding
 Corona treatment
 Diffusion processes:
o Carburizing
o Nitriding
 Electroplating
 Galvanizing

Removing and reshaping

 Abrasive blasting
o Sandblasting
 Burnishing
 Chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP)
 Electropolishing
 Flame polishing
 Gas cluster ion beam
 Grinding
 Industrial etching
 Linishing
 Mass finishing processes
o Tumble finishing
o Vibratory finishing
  Pickling
 Polishing
o Buffing
 Peening
o Shot peening
 Superfinishing

Mechanical finishing
Mechanical finishing processes include:

 Abrasive blasting
o Sandblasting
 Burnishing
 Grinding
 Mass finishing processes
o Tumble finishing
o Vibratory finishing
 Polishing
o Buffing

Lapping is a machining operation, in which two surfaces are rubbed together with an abrasive
between them, by hand movement or by way of a machine.

This can take two forms. The first type of lapping (traditionally called grinding), typically
involves rubbing a brittle material such as glass against a surface such as iron or glass itself (also
known as the "lap" or grinding tool) with an abrasive such as aluminum oxide, jeweller's rouge,
optician's rouge, emery, silicon carbide, diamond, etc., in between them. This produces
microscopic conchoidal fractures as the abrasive rolls about between the two surfaces and
removes material from both.

The other form of lapping involves a softer material such as pitch or a ceramic for the lap, which
is "charged" with the abrasive. The lap is then used to cut a harder material—the workpiece. The
abrasive embeds within the softer material which holds it and permits it to score across and cut
the harder material. Taken to the finer limit, this will produce a polished surface such as with a
polishing cloth on an automobile, or a polishing cloth or polishing pitch upon glass or steel.

Taken to the ultimate limit, with the aid of accurate interferometry and specialized polishing
machines or skilled hand polishing, lensmakers can produce surfaces that are flat to better than
30 nanometers. This is one twentieth of the wavelength of light from the commonly used
632.8 nm helium neon laser light source. Surfaces this flat can be molecularly bonded (optically
contacted) by bringing them together under the right conditions. (This is not the same as the
wringing effect of Johansson blocks, although it is similar).
Contents
[hide]

 1 Operation
 2 Two-piece lapping
 3 Accuracy and surface roughness
 4 Measurement
o 4.1 Flatness
o 4.2 Roughness
 5 See also
 6 References

Operation

Small lapping plate made of cast iron

By way of example, a piece of lead may be used as the lap, charged with emery, and used to cut
a piece of hardened steel. The small plate shown in the first picture is that of a hand lapping
plate. That particular plate is made of cast iron. In use, a slurry of emery powder would be spread
on the plate and the workpiece simply rubbed against the plate, usually in a "figure-eight"
pattern.

Small lapping machine

The second picture is that of a commercially available lapping machine which is needed for this
process. The lap or lapping plate in this machine is 30 centimetres (12 in) in diameter. For a
commercial machine, that is about the smallest size available. At the other end of the size
spectrum, machines with 8-to-10-foot-diameter (2.4 to 3.0 m) plates are not uncommon, and
systems with tables 30 feet (9.1 m) in diameter have been constructed. Referring to the second
picture again, the lap is the large circular disk on the top of the machine. On top of the lap are
two rings. The workpiece would be placed inside one of these rings. A weight would then be
placed on top of the workpiece. The weights can also be seen in the picture along with two fiber
spacer disks that are just used to even the load.

In operation, the rings stay in one location as the lapping plate rotates beneath them. In this
machine, a small slurry pump can be seen at the side, this pump feeds abrasive slurry onto the
rotating lapping plate.

Lapping machine and retention jig

When there is a requirement to lap very small specimens (from 3" down to a few millimetres), a
lapping jig can be used to hold the material while it is lapped (see Image 3, lapping machine and
jig). A jig allows precise control of the orientation of the specimen to the lapping plate and fine
adjustment of the load applied to the specimen during the material removal process. Due to the
dimensions of such small samples, traditional loads and weights are too heavy as they would
destroy delicate materials. The jig sits in a cradle on top of the lapping plate and the dial on the
front of the jig indicates the amount of material removed from the specimen.

Two-piece lapping
Where the mating of the two surfaces is more important than the flatness, the two pieces can be
lapped together. The principle is that the protrusions on one surface will both abrade and be
abraded by the protrusions on the other, resulting in two surfaces evolving towards some
common shape (not necessarily perfectly flat), separated by a distance determined by the average
size of the abrasive particles, with a surface roughness determined by the variation in the
abrasive size. This yields closeness-of-fit results comparable to that of two accurately-flat pieces,
without quite the same degree of testing required for the latter.
Schematic of two-piece lapping

One complication in two-piece lapping is the need to ensure that neither piece flexes or is
deformed during the process. As the pieces are moved past each other, part of each (some area
near the edge) will be unsupported for some fraction of the rubbing movement. If one piece
flexes due to this lack of support, the edges of the opposite piece will tend to dig depressions into
it a short distance in from the edge, and the edges of the opposite piece are heavily abraded by
the same action - the lapping procedure assumes roughly equal pressure distribution across the
whole surface at all times, and fails in this manner if the workpiece itself deforms under that
pressure.

Accuracy and surface roughness

Lapping can be used to obtain a specific surface roughness; it is also used to obtain very accurate
surfaces, usually very flat surfaces. Surface roughness and surface flatness are two quite different
concepts. Unfortunately, they are concepts that are often confused by the novice.

A typical range of surface roughness that can be obtained without resort to special equipment
would fall in the range of 1 to 30 Ra (average roughness in micrometers or microinches).

Surface accuracy or flatness is usually measured in Helium Light Bands, one HLB measuring
about 0.000011 inches (280 nm). Again, without resort to special equipment accuracies of 1 to 3
HLB are typical. Though flatness is the most common goal of lapping, the process is also used to
obtain other configurations such as a concave or convex surface.

Measurement
Flatness

The easiest method for measuring flatness is with a height gage positioned on a surface plate.
Note that you must setup the part on three stands and find the minimum variation while adjusting
them, just placing the part on the surface plate and using a dial indicator to find TIR on the
opposite side of the part measures parallelism. Flatness is more easily measured with a co-
ordinate measuring machine. But neither of these methods can measure flatness more accurately
than about 0.0001" (2.5μm).
optical flats in wooden case

Monochromatic light unit

Another method that is commonly used with lapped parts is the reflection and interference of
monochromatic light.[1] A monochromatic light source and an optical flat are all that are needed.
The optical flat – which is a piece of transparent glass that has itself been lapped and polished on
one or both sides – is placed on the lapped surface. The monochromatic light is then shone down
through the glass. The light will pass through the glass and reflect off the workpiece. As the light
reflects in the gap between the workpiece and the polished surface of the glass, the light will
interfere with itself creating light and dark fringes. Each fringe – or band – represents a change
of one half wavelength in the width of the gap between the glass and the workpiece. The light
bands display a contour map of the surface of the workpiece and can be readily interpreted for
flatness. In the past the light source would have been provided by a Helium lamp or tube,[citation
needed]
but nowadays a more common source of monochromatic light is the low pressure sodium
lamp.[citation needed] The picture to the right shows a typical monochromatic light unit used in
workshops and laboratories.

For a more thorough description of the physics behind this measurement technique, see
interference.
Roughness

Surface roughness is defined by the minute variations in height of the surface of a given material
or workpiece. The individual variances of the peaks and valleys are averaged (Ra reading), or
quantified by the largest difference from peak-to-valley (Rz). Roughness is usually expressed in
microinches. A surface that exhibits an Ra of 8 consists of peaks and valleys that average no
more than 8 microinches over a given distance. Roughness may be also measured by comparing
the surface of the workpiece to a known sample. Calibration samples are available usually sold in
a set and usually covering the typical range of machining operations from about 125 Ra to 1 Ra.

Surface roughness is measured with a profilometer, an instrument that measures the minute
variations in height of the surface of a workpiece.

Honing is an abrasive machining process that produces a precision surface on a metal workpiece
by scrubbing an abrasive stone against it along a controlled path. Honing is primarily used to
improve the geometric form of a surface, but may also improve the surface texture.

Typical applications are the finishing of cylinders for internal combustion engines, air bearing
spindles and gears. Types of hone are many and various but all consist of one or more abrasive
stones that are held under pressure against the surface they are working on.

In everyday use, a honing steel is used to hone knives, especially kitchen knives, and is a fine
process, there contrasted with more abrasive sharpening.

Other similar processes are lapping and superfinishing.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Honing stones
 2 Process mechanics
 3 Honing configurations
 4 Economics
 5 Performance advantages of honed surfaces
 6 Cross-hatch finish
 7 Plateau finish
 8 See also
 9 Notes

[edit] Honing stones

Superabrasives and hone head for cylinders.

Honing tools

Honing uses a special tool, called a honing stone or a hone, to achieve a precision surface. The
hone is a composed of abrasive grains that are bound together with an adhesive. Generally,
honing grains are irregularly shaped and about 10 to 50 micrometers in diameter (300 to 1,500
mesh grit). Smaller grain sizes produce a smoother surface on the workpiece.

A honing stone is similar to a grinding wheel in many ways, but honing stones are usually more
friable so that they conform to the shape of the workpiece as they wear in. To counteract their
friability, honing stones may be treated with wax or sulfur to improve life; wax is usually
preferred for environmental reasons.[1]

Any abrasive material may be used to create a honing stone, but the most commonly used are
corundum, silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride, or diamond. The choice of abrasive material is
usually driven by the characteristics of the workpiece material. In most cases, corundum or
silicon carbide are acceptable, but extremely hard workpiece materials must be honed using
superabrasives.[1]

The hone is usually turned in the bore while being moved in and out. Special cutting fluids are
used to give a smooth cutting action and to remove the material that has been abraded. Machines
can be portable, simple manual machines, or fully automatic with gauging depending on the
application.

Modern advances in abrasives have made it possible to remove much larger amount of material
than was previously possible. This has displaced grinding in many applications where "through
machining" is possible. External hones perform the same function on shafts.

[edit] Process mechanics

Since honing stones look similar to grinding wheels, it is tempting to think of honing as a form
of low-stock removal grinding. Instead, it is better to think of it as a self-truing grinding process.
[2]

In grinding, the wheel follows a simple path. For example, in plunge grinding a shaft, the wheel
moves in towards the axis of the part, grinds it, and then moves back out. Since each slice of the
wheel repeatedly contacts the same slice of the workpiece, any inaccuracies in the geometric
shape of the grinding wheel will be transferred onto the part. Therefore, the accuracy of the
finished workpiece geometry is limited to the accuracy of the truing dresser. The accuracy
becomes even worse as the grind wheel wears, so truing must occur periodically to reshape it.

The limitation on geometric accuracy is overcome in honing because the honing stone follows a
complex path. In bore honing for example, the stone moves along two paths simultaneously. The
stones are pressed radially outward to enlarge the hole while they simultaneously oscillate
axially. Due to the oscillation, each slice of the honing stones touch a large area of the
workpiece. Therefore, imperfections in the honing stone's profile cannot transfer to the bore.
Instead both the bore and the honing stones conform to the average shape of the honing stones'
motion, which in the case of bore honing is a cylinder. This averaging effect occurs in all honing
processes; both the workpiece and stones erode until they conform to the average shape of the
stones' cutting surface. Since the honing stones tend to erode towards a desired geometric shape,
there is no need to true them. As a result of the averaging effect, the accuracy of a honed
component often exceeds the accuracy of the machine tool that created it.

The path of the stone is not the only difference between grinding and honing machines, they also
differ in the stiffness of their construction. Honing machines are much more compliant than
grinders. The purpose of grinding is to achieve a tight size tolerance. To do this, the grinding
wheel must be moved to an exact position relative to the workpiece. Therefore a grinding
machine must be very stiff and its axes must move with very high precision.

A honing machine, ironically, is relatively inaccurate and compliant. Instead of relying on the
accuracy of the machine tool, it relies on the averaging effect between the stone and the
workpiece. In fact, compliance is a requirement of a honing machine that is necessary for the
averaging effect to occur. This leads to an obvious difference between the two machines: in a
grinder the stone is rigidly attached to a slide, while in honing the stone is actuated with
pneumatic or hydraulic pressure.
 High-precision workpieces are usually ground and then honed. Grinding determines the size, and
honing improves the shape.

The difference between honing and grinding is not always distinct. Some grinders have complex
movements and are self-truing, and some honing machines are equipped with in-process gaging
for size control. Many through-feed grinding operations rely on the same averaging effect as
honing.

1. Surface finishing process-Lapping

Lapping is a surface finishing process used to give a surface finish to articles. It is

essentially an abrading process. Very less material can be removed from this process only
around 0.005 to 0.01 mm is removed. This is a low efficiency process and is used only when
a required amount of surface finish is required.

In this process, the laps i.e.; lapping shoes are charged with abrading powders like emery,
iron oxide, chromium oxide. Laps are made from any material like soft cast Iron soft steel,
brass etc. These laps are made to rub against the surface so that the irregular surface
erodes. For better surface finish, the laps can be given reciprocating motion etc. In short
two types of motions can be combined

The lapping machine is available in three types.

1.Vertical axis lapping machine
2. Center less lapping machine
3.Abrasive belt lapping machine.