Experimental evaluation of on-line discrete tile rotations in the polishing process of ceramic tiles

Abstract This work evaluates a new kinematics for the industrial polishing process of porcelain stoneware tile. In addition to the typical motions available in industrial polishing trains, each ceramic tile undergoes a discrete rotation during the polishing process, so that more uniform gloss distributions can be obtained without radical changes in the industries facilities. The consequences of this alternative were quantitatively analyzed. A customized computer numeric control (CNC)-machine was used for obtaining the corresponding experimental results. A reasonable linear correlation between theoretical and experimental gains in uniformity was verified, making viable the use of computational simulations to assist the on-line decisions during the tile production.