Mass Cleaning Parts With Vibratory Finishing Machines

By Author: David Scheetz
Total Articles: 3764
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Mass finishing refers to the finishing process on a lot of parts simultaneously. Finishing involves the deburing, polishing, smoothing, cleaning and separating of parts. The finishing process is carried out in a tumbling or vibratory machine, with finishing media, finishing compounds and the parts to be mass finished thrown in together.

Depending upon the nature of the parts that need mass finishing, the finishing machine, finishing media and finishing compounds should be chosen. In tumbling machines, parts can be tumbled with or without media. These machines are well suited or aggressive cutting and producing shiny polishes; they are good for working on edges and rounded corners. Vibratory machines are used for shaking parts and media at a enormous rate of speed; they are safe for use on delicate parts and these machines produce very smooth finishes even in parts with holes and deep recesses. Natural media like corn cob media and walnut shell media are used when a soft abrasive effect is required. For heavier abrasive needs, man made media like plastic and ceramic media can be used.

When general deburring has ...
... to be done, ceramic media is very useful. Hard ceramic media are used for light deburring and polishing. soft ceramic media that have more abrasive ingredients are used when quicker cutting is needed. If delicate parts are subjected to mass finishing, plastic media can be used to produce very smooth finishes without much shine. Because plastic media are much lighter compared to ceramic media, they do not damage fragile parts. It is important to determine the right amount of media for the amount of parts being finished so that the parts remain safe. Finishing compounds are used to enhance the efficiency of the finishing media being used and to increase finishing cycle times. Compounds could be alkaline or acidic; they are very effective in de-greasing and de-scaling and they also help in increasing cutting speeds.

Vibratory finishing machines are used in mass finishing of parts. They comprise of tubs called finishing or processing tubs that are vibrated at high speeds. The parts to be finished are placed into the tub along with finishing media and when the tub vibrates, the parts and media graze against each other. This abrasive action produces the deburring of parts. The cutting action that happens in a vibratory system is precise and thorough. Compounds designed for vibratory systems can be used to produce better results.

The vibratory finishing machines run at high speeds and very short strokes. So, they are powerful; yet, because of the short strokes, they do not place any undue stress on the parts. They can therefore be safely used on large parts like wing spans and landing struts. The vibratory finishing machines easily remove material from holes and recesses in parts like bores and can work very fragile parts without causing any damage. The vibratory machines can be automated very easily - a full automation can be done for a finishing process that is sequential in nature. It can also be used as part of a large batch finishing process.