Finishing Fundamentals

Last updated on July 30th, 2024 at 12:54 pm

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Finishing Fundamentals

Advanced Deburring & Finishing is the company you can count on when you need high-performance finishing equipment. Doing your own finishing with one of our machines can streamline your process and save you a great deal of time and money. Our machines are suitable for smaller finishing projects as well as mass finishing. Fundamentals related to the process of finishing follow:

  • The purpose of surface finishing is to clean, deburr, deflash, descale, polish, otherwise treat/prep a metal surface to give it a bright surface appearance for marketing, safe edges for assembly into another device, RA/RMS surface profile with flatness (i.e. engines, transmissions, medical implants, to jet engines to name a few.)
  • Aluminum is a nonferrous metal, meaning it has no iron and is not susceptible to rust. Other nonferrous metals that are often finished include stainless steel, copper, zinc and titanium. Ferrous metals that frequently undergo finishing include carbon steel, alloy steel and cast/ductile iron.
  • Deburring is the process of removing burrs — or small, unwanted loose hanging pieces of material — from a machining, cutting, fabrication process. Manual deburring is done with sandpaper and handheld tools. Mass mechanical finishing would be with a media/stones and a vibratory machine. Production numbers are needed for your return on investment. It can also be completed through electrochemical machining, abrasive blasting and slurry finishing.
  • Burnishing or polishing with vibratory machines is when you apply a special process to shine or deep shine a metal surface. Reflecting light is what it is all about. The better RA/RMS factory is (the less hills and valleys on the microscopic surface) the better it shines. There is help with less corrosion depending on the part application because the small surface fractures are smoothed over/peened down based on media used for the process at 300 plus pounds per cubic foot.
  • There are two main types of mass finishing. The first is tumble finishing — also known as barrel finishing / centrifugal barrel finishing — which involves placing parts in a horizontal barrel and then rotating that barrel so the parts grind against each other. The second is vibratory finishing, which involves putting the pieces to be finished in a vibratory tumbler (round bowl, tub style, or thru-feed) with some form of tumbling media/stone to serve as the rubbing action for the deburring process.
  • When choosing abrasive media, it’s important to consider the shape, recessed areas, holes, coolants/oils on the part, and the hardness of the surface you’re attempting to finish. The harder the surface, the more aggressive the tumbling media needs to be to achieve the proper results.
  • At Advanced Deburring & Finishing, we have systems for whichever finishing processes you wish to pursue. Our inventory of finishing products includes round bowl vibratory machines, tub-style deburring machines, continuous/thru-feed-style vibratory deburring machines, centrifugal high-energy systems and spindle and slurry deburring systems.

 

Learn More About Surface Finishing Today

We have been serving the finishing machine needs of businesses in industries including aerospace, automotive, medical, manufacturing and more for more than 35 years, and we continue to be on the cutting edge of surface finishing technology. To learn more about your various finishing options and find the best option for your parts — or to acquire more information about the finishing machines we have to offer and get a quote on your finishing system product — contact one of our experts online or call us at 800-553-7060 now.

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