The Quality of Surgical Instrument Surfaces Machined with Robotic Belt Grinding

Abstract

Belt grinding is commonly used in the finishing of non-functional shaped surfaces of surgical instruments. Most often it is carried out manually. The subject of this article is the possibility of replacing manual belt grinding with robotic grinding. A research stand was built, the machining process was programmed, and a comparative study of manual and robotic grinding was carried out. The subject of the research were the arms of orthodontic forceps. The condition of the treated surface, defined by its structure and roughness and the geometric accuracy and the error of the shape of the arm in the selected cross-section were adopted as the comparative criteria. Research has shown that robotic belt grinding is more efficient in terms of quality and produces more consistent results than manual grinding.