A model for material removal of robot-assisted blade polishing using abrasive cloth wheel

The blades of aero-engines and gas turbines are the power core components, and the polishing consistency of free-form surface directly affects the surface quality and the parts performance. Studying the material removal mechanism of free-form surfaces and building the material removal model are core issues in the robot-assisted abrasive cloth wheel polishing blade system. Therefore, based on the Hertz contact theory, the force in the macro-contact area of the abrasive cloth wheel and the blade is analyzed. The relationship between the normal polishing force in the contact area of the blade surface and the compression amount of the abrasive cloth wheel, and the distribution law of the pressure in the contact area are obtained. Combined with the microscopic force of the single abrasive grain on the surface of the blade and the mathematical model of the multiple abrasive grains distribution, then material removal volume at micro-elements on the blade surface was established, and the material removal depth model was derived, and the material removal model of the abrasive cloth wheel polishing blade was constructed. On this basis, the influence factors such as normal polishing force, linear speed, robot feed speed, and time were analyzed. The experimental verification results show that the maximum error between the experimental results and the theoretical model is 9.89%. The feasibility of the established material removal model for the abrasive cloth wheel polishing blades was verified.