Deburring Equipment Types and Terms

  • Barrel finishing (or Tumbling) is a process that produces a low-pressure abrasion action by tumbling work pieces in a hexagonal or octagonal barrel together with an abrasive media.
  • Centrafugal Disc machines are essentially barrel machines and the name describes the spinning disc at the bottom of the machine that spins the part and abrasive media together.
  • Continuous processing equipment is able to process high volume parts on a constant basis through in-line production.
  • Deburring machines remove burrs from metal and plastic parts.
  • Oval vibratory systems are versatile machines that can be set up for either continuous processing or batch processing for extended time cycles.
  • Polishing equipment is used in many types of deburring. Examples range from the barrel or vibratory tumbler as well as non-enclosed options like Nylon Abrasive Filament (NAF) brushes or standard hand held sandpapers and filers.
  • Sand blasting equipment is also a type of deburring machinery which produces a desired effect. Rather than the metal part being immersed in polishing media, as in the case of vibratory or barrel tumblers, the part surface is blasted from the outside by the appropriate media which is often small ceramic pieces or even walnut shells in the case of softer plastic parts. see Sand Blast Equipment
  • Tumbling media is the abrasive material used in deburring.
  • Vibratory finishing is the burr removal process in which an appropriate number of parts, depending on part size and abrasive material, is accelerated and decelerated by mechanical means inside of a drum-like enclosure.
  • Vibratory Tumblers are one type of deburring machinary. Often similar in shape and technology as the barrel machines, but are open at the top allowing the ability to view the progress of the deburring without stopping the machine.

Deburring Machinery Terms

Abrasive - Technically any material that can be used to abrade another material. In industry however, abrasives are minerals from a select group of very hard minerals used to shape, finish, polish or deburr another material.
 
Buffing
- Polishing method using a soft cloth and very fine polishing compounds.
 
Burr - Undesirable protrusions and metal edges that result from machining operations.
 
Coated Abrasive - Often referred to as sandpaper. This is used on machines such as disc sanders and is often used by hand. Often a synthetic mineral is coated on the paper or fiber rather than actual sand.
 
Crystalline - The texture of groups or masses of minerals is said to be crystalline when distinct crystal faces are present.
 
Disc Grinding - Refers to grinding machines and a process using the face of a large wheel  to produce flat and parallel surfaces in high volume production.
 
Edge - The intersection of two surfaces.
 
Finish - A measurement of surface characteristics of a workpiece.
 
Friability - A characteristic of abrasive grains that describes their tendency to fracture or break apart then hit or placed under pressure.
 
Emery - A natural abrasive that contains aluminum oxide and small amounts of iron oxide. Once used extensively in the finishing industry, it is used today mostly in home workshops for deburring by hand.
 
Mass Finishing - A group of processes that use abrasives to remove burrs or apply a finish to small workpieces.
 
Media - The abrasive pellets, stones or other materials used in mass finishing and deburring. Examples are silicon carbide, ice, plastic, sand and walnut shells.
 
Polishing - A process using very fine abrasive minerals for little or no material removal. The step of finishing that often comes just after deburring when needed. Surface appearance is the primary purpose of polishing.
 
Silicon Carbide - This synthetic mineral is one of the abrasives used extensively in the finishing industry. It his harder than aluminum oxides.