Effects of ceramic and diamond honing on Bore/Liner surface in view of oil retention

Honing is a low-speed abrading process to remove metallic and non-metallic materials from a surface. Honing corrects surface errors produced by other machining operations prior to honing. Moreover, the honing grooves, the volume and the direction of the valleys control the amount of oil available, by keeping the oil on the bore surface and by improving the spreading of the oil. The traditional honing process that uses ceramic abrasives has been replaced by the superior abrasives that is Metal Bonded Diamond [1,2]. However, the main drawback of diamond honing is that it leaves more torn metal and folded metal on surface [3]. The folded and / or torn metal partially covers the honing grooves and interrupts oil flow in groove. Hence, it causes abrasive wear as axial scratches on the cylinder surface. Diamond is the strongest material known that is less friable, wear very little, requires more pressure and tends to plough through metal surface rather than cut. On the other hand, conventional abrasives that are ceramic abrasives have self-sharpening properties and higher friability. In this study, two cylinder blocks in different engines are tested to see the effect type of honing abrasives used that are diamond and ceramic. Results show that diamond abrasive leaves more folded metal on honed surface and it leads to decrease in oil retention capability.