The simulation and experimental study of glossiness formation in belt sanding and polishing processes

Abstract

Glossiness is an optical index representing the capacity of a surface to reflect light, which is vital criteria for components in need of esthetic appearance. To achieve the stringent glossiness requirement, sanding and polishing for smooth surface generation become the necessary material removal method. However, the intrinsic correlation of surface roughness and glossiness is still not clear. Small roughness value does not always guarantee perfect glossiness, and high surface glossiness does not always require extreme surface roughness perfection. In this paper, the surface topography features and glossiness conditions are analyzed for sanded and polished surfaces. And the surface glossiness is modeled and simulated for surfaces generated with non-Gaussian topography features manufactured by sanding and polishing. Finally, the critical surface topography parameters are identified to establish the correlation with the surface glossiness.