Just what exactly is the process of deburring? In essence, deburring is a finishing method that is used during industrial manufacturing. When metal is used to create pieces and parts of machinery the most common methods in that process are welding, molding, casting, trimming, slitting or shearing. All of these methods can often cause products to end up with ragged, bumpy edges. These often sharp, raised bits and pieces are referred to as burrs.
There are a number of ways to remove or deburr industrial machined parts to ensure they are of a grade suitable for long life and efficient service. Much depends upon what the parts themselves are made of. The use of a deburring machine is one of the most common ways to remove burrs. Abrasive substances or cloths are used to rub against the metal and remove the thin shavings while smoothing out the small notches. This process can also polish the parts at the same time, which reduces overall production times and gets finished parts out faster.
Sanding, either by hand or machine, methods can sometimes be required to make industrial parts. This finishing method can be used when simply hand rubbing is not an effective process to remove burrs. Again, depending upon the material that the industrial parts are made of, the deburring process may require filing or the use of something as strong as a grinder to smooth down the bumpy surface and remove the nicks and various fragmented particles.
Why is deburring important? When it comes to quality, functionality, ease of operation and smooth, clean contacts, having industrial parts deburred is of paramount importance. Even the slightest imperfections will cause parts to wear faster, and eventually create breakdowns that reduce the effective lives of the machinery they are a part of.
Accelerated machine wear and tear is just one reason it is so important for parts to be deburred. Rough edges on industrial parts can cause them to catch in unexpected places, which in turn can cause accidents leading to unnecessary injury. Best case scenarios of incidents caused by non-deburred machinery will force costly delays in productivity while parts are replaced. None of this tends to sit well with production line managers and workers.
Metals and plastics are not the only materials which develop burrs in their production processing. Even wood has tendencies to burr during the cutting and ripping of pieces. Splinters, chips, and shavings tend to be the most common types of wood burrs that must then be removed for the finished pieces to be production or assembly ready. The most common wood deburring techniques usually involve some sort of sanding process. Simple hand sanding often touches up the burrs, however there are industrial grade power sanders which are also used. Depending upon the finishing requirements, routers may also be used on the edges of wood in order to provide fancy edging.
While the process of deburring is often time consuming and costly, it is an effective process that is usually required in order to save both time and money later on in the industrial process. Putting in the extra finishing time initially usually pays for itself many times over at the end of the day.
