Project Details
Projekt
Analysis and simulation of the industrial polishing process of ceramic tiles, considering the kinematics, the abrasive tools and the resulting gloss gaining
Applicant
Professor Dr. Fabio Jose Pinheiro Sousa
Subject Area
Metal-Cutting and Abrasive Manufacturing Engineering
Term
from 2009 to 2015
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 136641989
The acceptance of polished porcelain stoneware tiles has increased in the last years despiteof their expensive prices. Implausibly, polishing operation in industrial scale still underlies ontrial and errors. In this work, a project of research on this polishing process is presented. Themajor aim is to improve the overall efficiency associated to the process by offering some usefulguidelines to the industries. For this purpose two different approaches are planned. Thefirst one is concerned with the kinematics of the abrasive particles, in order to get a uniformdistribution of abrasive contacts throughout the whole surface of the tile. The second approachconsists in optimizing the interaction between abrasives and the porcelain tile. Scratchingtests will be used as the main experimental technique. Several scratches are planned with differentconditions, including tests with successive scratches with different intersection anglesand spacing between them. The results from both approaches will be assembled together sothat an empirical modelling of the process could be conceived. This model should be developedinto a computational algorithm in order to provide an accurate simulation tool for the collaborativeindustries. At last, the adequacy of the resulting modelling should be checked inreal polishing trains in industrial scale.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Brazil
