Most owners who have businesses with a variety of machinery will know that maintaining all functional machines are vital to the business’ success. Pieces and parts of machines can burr creating problems in the future. When you invest in a decent deburring process, you’ll be able to increase your factories’ productivity.
How Does Burring Occur?
During working processes, many sheet metal machines will experience burring. Burring is when material compression occurs, creating sharp edges and rough ridges around machine parts.
Burrs are visible as raised sharp edges of titanium, iron, or metal as well as fine wires sticking out of machine parts.
Material compression occurs during fine blanking, casting, grinding, drilling, stamping, molding, and turning. The amount of burr that occurs is dependent on the tools used, the cutting speed, and the type of material the machine is made out of.
Learn more about burrs here: https://www.pfonline.com/articles/whats-in-a-burr
What is the Deburring Process?
There’s a wide variety of deburring processes available on the market. Unwanted pieces of raised metal on a machine’s edge are removed through either one of the following three processes:
Electrochemical: A precise deburring process that uses an electronic machine together with a salt solution and electricity. A special tool can reach the location of the burr through a process that uses an electric current.
This process is usually used on machines that have hard-to-reach places. The burr is removed within 5-10 seconds.
Manual: An affordable deburring process that is most typically used. Tools are inexpensive and most employees are capable of doing it themselves using sandpaper, stones, scrapers, and reamers.
Power tools that can use sandpaper, abrasive tips, and cutters are also used in this method. Usually for burrs that are on easy-to-reach surfaces.
Mechanical: A process that uses rolling and grinding. It speeds up the process by eliminating manual deburring, through letting the mechanism deburr itself.
Watch this to see deburring techniques in action.
Why is Deburring Necessary?
A manufacturing facility has a wide variety of steel parts constantly moving in the assembly line. Many of these parts have a certain lifespan. When they aren’t maintained and regularly inspected, they can break down. Leaving the manufacturing schedule at a halt.
It’s important to deburr machines on a regular basis to increase the longevity of these metal parts. Ultimately maintaining the facility’s productivity.
Here follow a few other reasons how productivity is increased when you apply these techniques:
Maintains Precision: For many manufacturing companies, it’s important that products are made with safe edges. When you use a deburring process on parts that you manufacture you ultimately increase their value.
Safer: If you are a manufacturer of metal pieces that are used in food machinery, then it’s important that all parts have smooth edges. When flakes of metal detach and fall into food products, then it can be extremely hazardous.
Even medical and surgical tools need to be carefully deburred in order to have a smooth edge. If not, then it can cause internal bleeding in a patient and become biohazardous.
For machine operators, a surface without any rough edges is better to avoid lethal cuts and injuries.
Speeds up Productivity: The deburring of sheet metal holds many benefits to the company. One of the most beneficial parts is that it ultimately speeds up productivity during manufacturing.
Instead of using manual processes, one can try a few other techniques to smooth edges of products that are mass-produced. It helps to standardize the shape, size, and smoothness of the parts produces.
Ultimately saving time and highly contributing to the company’s productivity.
When it comes to the manufacturing machines itself when you have regular maintenance and check-ups scheduled your assembly line will move much faster. The dangers of leaving sharp edges on apparatuses that are constantly working will have an extremely negative effect on production. Some of the raised edges might get caught on other parts, damaging the entire unit.
Once machines that are vital in the production line are damaged, the whole system will experience a long pause. Repairing seriously damaged parts will take much more time than a routine deburring every once in a while.
Investing in a deburring machine and scheduling regular maintenance routines, will increase your facility’s productivity drastically.
