thermal deburring machines
When To Use Thermal Deburring Machines
Thermal deburring machines use instantaneous and very intense heat energy to perform the deburring operation. Parts are placed inside a cylindrical chamber which is sealed, then pressurized with a mixture of combustible gases. This gaseous mixture completely encloses your parts, reaching into even the most confined areas.
When the gaseous mixture is ignited, an intense combustion takes place generating a very intense heat lasting only a few milliseconds. This intense heat burns, or oxidizes the burrs. Only the burrs are removed because the intense heat attacks areas with considerable surface area and very little mass. All areas of the part are exposed to the deburring operation. It is virtually impossible to miss any burr.
Thermal deburring is a technique increasingly used in the metal industry to remove burrs on not easily accessible metal items of steel or aluminum. Examples of not easily accessible areas are internal holes in hydraulic blocks. Thermal deburring takes place in a closed chamber in a controlled explosion caused by high pressure and in the presence of oxygen and methane. In the explosion, the temperature reaches approx. 3,000°C where the burrs on the item are “burnt” away. Subsequently, the item surface is coated with burning products in the form of metal oxides/rust. This coating has to be removed before any further processing takes place and is usually removed by strong acids such as phosphoric acid or sulphuric acid which pickles the metal oxides from the surface.
Thermal energy deburring, for instance, is a straightforward concept for bulk-deburring small parts. Here, parts in baskets or fixtures are placed in a sealed chamber. In a few milliseconds, fuel gas combusted with oxygen burns off the burrs without affecting the part’s thick sections. Thermal deburring can eliminate loose, thin material, though it’s limited by thicker burrs. This method of deburring is used with most, but not all, metals. It does not take much time for this process to be completed and it is safe for the metal to be oxidized in this way.
Using thermal deburring machines has an expensive start up cost if you are interested in having an in-house system but the improvement in quality and the speed at which parts can be completed will help to recover those costs. If the volume done does not lead to purchasing the equipment, there are many shops that do finishing and they can be located easily. One of the best reasons to use heat deburring is that all parts of the material being worked on is finished at one time. The heat is not only on the surface but gets to all the small and difficult to reach areas. As technology advances and parts become smaller and more intricate in order to achieve the smoothest product, thermal deburring is often the best way to go. Tumble or vibratory deburring are other methods, but few if any of these can actually get into the tight internal spaces that are sometimes required. Other systems work great if you are dealing with a lot of flat surfaces but they can leave burrs in slots.
