Single-Stroke Honing Provides Precise Bore Size, Geometry and Surface Finish

Every shop management team strives to be efficient in its processes. When I read about methods that are quick, cost effective and provide good results, I want to share that information with you in hopes of inspiring at least a few of you to take a closer look at these processes for your shop that can eventually make a difference in your productivity.

Whether or not single-stroke honing is something your shop offers, it’s a process I find worth writing about here because, when properly implemented, it is a cost-effective method that provides a precise bore size, geometry and surface finish.

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Honing is a secondary operation used to improve the geometric form of a bore. A rotating tool, using either a diamond-coated sleeve or stone abrasive, is used to remove metal from an interior surface to create a specific diameter and cylindricity. The length of the stroke and the size of the abrasive give honing the advantage over internal grinding for workpieces with a length-to-diameter ratio of 2 to 1 or more. The tool and the abrasive itself determine the operation’s accuracy.

Single-stroke honing uses a tapered arbor assembled with a sleeve plated with an abrasive. The tool hones the bore by positioning the tapered sleeve, and in a single stroke, sizes the bore to a predetermined diameter. According to Sunnen Products Company, which manufactures single-stroke honing machines, its machines achieve cylindricity/straightness less than 2 microns in bores as much as 10 times longer than the diameter. The single-pass process is said to be almost 200 percent more accurate than other methods used for long, small-diameter, tandem bores.

To learn more about single-stroke honing, visit “Finding Significant Increases in Honing Accuracy.”