HONING OF CYLINDERS

Honing or to "Hone"is an abrasive machining process that produces a precision surface on a

metal workpiece by scrubbing an abrasive stone against it along a controlled path. Honing is
primarily used to improve the geometric form of a surface, but may also improve the surface
texture.
Typical applications are the finishing of cylinders for internal combustion engines, air bearing
spindles and gears. There are many types of hones but all consist of one or more abrasive
stones that are held under pressure against the surface they are working on.
In terms of sharpening knives, a honing steel does not actually hone knives, but simply
realigns the metal along the edge.
Other similar processes are lapping and superfinishing.
Honing uses a special tool, called a honing stone or a hone, to achieve a precision surface. The hone is
composed of abrasive grains that are bound together with an adhesive. Generally, honing grains are
irregularly shaped and about 10 to 50 micrometers in diameter (300 to 1,500 mesh grit). Smaller grain
sizes produce a smoother surface on the workpiece.
Any abrasive material may be used to create a honing stone, but the most commonly used are
corundum, silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride, or diamond. The choice of abrasive material is usually
driven by the characteristics of the workpiece material. In most cases, corundum or silicon carbide are
acceptable, but extremely hard workpiece materials must be honed using superabrasives. [
When an engine is rebuilt, the cylinders usually need attention. Wear tends to create taper in the upper part of
the cylinder that can reduce ring sealing and increase blowby and oil consumption if not removed. The cylinder
may also be out of round, scored or have other damage that requires correcting before a new set of rings will
seal properly.

In grinding, the wheel follows a simple path. For example, in plunge grinding a shaft, the
wheel moves in towards the axis of the part, grinds it, and then moves back out. Since each
slice of the wheel repeatedly contacts the same slice of the workpiece, any inaccuracies in the
geometric shape of the grinding wheel will be transferred onto the part. Therefore, the

accuracy of the finished workpiece geometry is limited to the accuracy of the truing dresser.
The accuracy becomes even worse as the grind wheel wears, so truing must occur
periodically to reshape it.
The limitation on geometric accuracy is overcome in honing because the honing stone
follows a complex path. In bore honing for example, the stone moves along two paths
simultaneously. The stones are pressed radially outward to enlarge the hole while they
simultaneously oscillate axially. Due to the oscillation, each slice of the honing stones touch a
large area of the workpiece. Therefore, imperfections in the honing stone's profile cannot
transfer to the bore. Instead both the bore and the honing stones conform to the average shape
of the honing stones' motion, which in the case of bore honing is a cylinder. This averaging
effect occurs in all honing processes; both the workpiece and stones erode until they conform
to the average shape of the stones' cutting surface. Since the honing stones tend to erode
towards a desired geometric shape, there is no need to true them. As a result of the averaging
effect, the accuracy of a honed component often exceeds the accuracy of the machine tool
that created it.
The path of the stone is not the only difference between grinding and honing machines, they
also differ in the stiffness of their construction. Honing machines are much more compliant
than grinders. The purpose of grinding is to achieve a tight size tolerance. To do this, the
grinding wheel must be moved to an exact position relative to the workpiece. Therefore a
grinding machine must be very stiff and its axes must move with very high precision.
A honing machine, ironically, is relatively inaccurate and compliant. Instead of relying on the
accuracy of the machine tool, it relies on the averaging effect between the stone and the
workpiece. In fact, compliance is a requirement of a honing machine that is necessary for the
averaging effect to occur. This leads to an obvious difference between the two machines: in a
grinder the stone is rigidly attached to a slide, while in honing the stone is actuated with
pneumatic or hydraulic pressure.
High-precision workpieces are usually ground and then honed. Grinding determines the size,
and honing improves the shape.
The difference between honing and grinding is not always distinct. Some grinders have
complex movements and are self-truing, and some honing machines are equipped with inprocess gaging for size control. Many through-feed grinding operations rely on the same
averaging effect as honing.

The main objective when refinishing the cylinders is to make the walls as straight as possible
(no taper), the bores as round as possible (minimal distortion, which is especially important
with low tension rings), to have the right amount of crosshatch for good oil retention and ring
support, and to produce a surface finish that meets the requirements of the rings. This is done

by boring and/or honing the cylinders in one or several steps with various types of abrasives
(vitrified or diamond).
After honing, the cylinders need to be cleaned remove residual abrasive and metallic debris
that is left in the bores. Washing and scrubbing with warm soapy water will remove most of
the unwanted material. But washing alone does not loosen or remove surface "swarf" such as
torn or folded metal that can wear rings and delay ring seating. The only way to get rid of this
material and smooth the bores is to "polish" the bores after honing with some type of flexible
abrasive brush.
1. Measure
pistons
Just before they are reconnected to their rods, the pistons are measured so that the
final
bore
size
can
be
determined
for
the
honing
process.
On pistons with uncoated skirts, the diameter is measured on the skirt with a
micrometer. When the exact size of the piston is known, the machinist will then know
the finished size to hone the cylinder walls.
2. Coarse
grit
hone
The honing process does two things: First, it enlarges the cylinder bore to the exact
size that is needed to give the specified amount of clearance between the piston and
the cylinder wall. Second, it leaves a fine crosshatch pattern of light scratches on the
walls of the cylinder that are necessary to retain microscopic beads of oil. This film of
oil seals the piston rings to the cylinder walls and keep the compression inside the
combustion
chambers.
As the stones go up and down in the cylinders, the machine flashes a light when the
stones are at the bottom of the bore and a meter tells the machinist how heavy the load
on the stones is. It is the balance between the speed of the stroke and the load on the
meter that returns the cylinder to a perfectly straight and round bore.
A dial bore gauge is used frequently during the honing process.
3. Fine
grit
hone
There are three grades of stone used during the honing, and when the size of the bore
reaches specific points, the machinist changes to a finer grit stone to slow down the
metal
removal
and
provide
a
smoother
surface.
When one side is complete, the block is flipped over and all three grades of stone are
used on the other four bores.
4. Brush
clean
When all the cylinders are within tolerance, the stones are changed for some brushes
that will be run with the honing oil to clean as much of the grit out of the crosshatches
as possible before the final wash.