Development of an Analytical Model for Correlation with Workpiece Roughness in Stream Finishing using a LiDar Sensor

The stream finishing process is often used for smoothing metal surfaces. It is commonly utilized in the high-precision finishing process of highperformance components, which shall not present any roughness gradient along the surface to avoid degrading its mechanical properties. Although many research works have studied the stream finishing process using experimental and simulative approaches, predicting the generated surface quality remains a challenge. In this work, LiDAR-sensor measurements have been conducted for an in-process analysis and real-time surface roughness prediction. The presented analytical approach obtains the process intensities resulting from the local forces. The resulting intensities show a linear correlation with the surface roughness enabling a forecast of the process-related gradient along the surface of the part during the stream finishing process, which allows the optimization of the process parameters and improvement of the surface quality.