Ford Motor Company Limited

Robert E DeJack

Christopher Kelly Palazzolo

John Edward Chancey

Barry E Shepley

Deborah R Pank

A method of preparing and coating cylindrical bore surfaces of an aluminum workpiece that comprises (a) inserting and rotationally reciprocally moving a plurality of honing elements against the bore surface with a pressure of at least 30 psi to effect a pattern of spiral overlapping abrasions on said surface, each element being constituted of multifaceted, irregular-shaped, abrasive particles (i.e., diamond or SiC) having a particle size of 30-1300 micrometers. The particles, when in contact with the surface, plow micro-sized, non-smooth and irregularly spaced grooves in the aluminum workpiece resulting in spiral peaks and valleys along the direction of movement of the particles, whereupon repeated reciprocation and rotation of the elements (i.e. 50-200 sfm) thereagainst results in overlapping grooves and cross-abrading of the prior peaks and valleys accompanied by a molding and folding over of certain of the peaks and valleys to create irregular, micro-sized tears, folds, and undercuts; and (b) thermally depositing wear resistant metallic particles onto the abraded surface to form a cohesive coating, said deposited particles migrating into the non-smooth grooves and into the irregular tears, folds, and undercuts during thermal deposition to increase the mechanical bond strength of the coating to the workpiece surface.

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Whitmore Lake, MI, United States of America

Robert E DeJack