Page 29 - MetalForming Magazine April 2023

Special Section: FABRICATION AUTOMATED DEBURRING
26 MetalForming/April 2023 www.metalformingmagazine.com
Compare a part after cutting (left) with the part after an auto- mated deburring sequence (right). Automated deburring can be incorporated directly into a fabricating cell to eliminate the extra handling and time required for manual grinding.
Vision-guided robots can be added to pick parts from stacks for automated deburring, then returned to stacks—one of many ways to further automate deburring operations.
This eliminates the risk of cross-cont- amination.”
For fabricators needing to deburr large quantities of titanium, aluminum and other materials, Weinfurtner advis- es installation of a dedicated automat- ed-deburring machine with a wet dust extraction.
As for consumable use, “a deburring machine is no different than an angle grinder, where the disc must be changed to keep up performance,” Weinfurtner says. “To maintain pro- ductivity, look for the ability to rapidly change consumables. Spending a cou- ple of hours or even half of the workday on consumable changeout should be unacceptable.”
Automated deburring technology, according to Weinfurtner, has advanced to where consumable changeout takes only minutes.
More to It Than Part Volume
Given the importance of proper deburring and the advantages of automating the process, when does automated deburring make sense for fabricators? There’s much more to it than simply part volume.
“Look at your operation,” advises Weinfurtner. “Are you drowning in grinding work? Are reject rates high? What are the reasons for rejects? After the painting of parts, for example, products may be rusting out in the field. This may indicate inconsistent or poor-quality edge rounding as the culprit.”
In fact, Weinfurtner recommends a deep dive into any part-quality issues related to painting or coating.
“Look at how the parts are cut,” he says. “Perhaps parts require better cleaning. Do the parts require full deburring on both sides? What can be done to make downstream processes more effective?
“As for painting and coating, which, of course, comes at added costs, we’ve seen fabricators that eliminate these processes and choose to, instead, sur- face-finish the parts via automated machines,” Weinfurtner continues. “This works well with stainless steel, for example, and provides a nice grain finish that they desire.
“At the end of the day, this all obvi- ously depends on a fabricator’s cus- tomer requirements,” he adds. “Cus- tomer requirements in job shops change all of the time. For automated deburring, job shops will want flexi- bility and simplicity in changing con- sumables to different grits, turning units on and off, and choosing between single-sided and double-sided debur- ring, for example.”
As for feeding parts into an auto- mated deburring machine, robots can be added to pick parts off the cutting table and transfer to a conveyor for transport to the machine. Another option, according to Weinfurtner, involves a vision-guided robot picking parts from a skid for machine feeding, and then restacking the parts after deburring. Automatic deburring
machines also benefit from Industry 4.0 advances, he adds, with the ability to connect machines to other line com- ponents for full line control from a centralized point. It also adds the ability to connect numerous deburring machines together. Another machine option: deslagging, which comes in handy for torch-cutting operations such as plasma and oxyfuel cutting.
In order to achieve the ideal final results, the tool storage ensures rapid setup and consistent performance for repeat jobs by saving previous used processing settings.
A Word on Post-Cut Leveling
With Arku’s long history in part, sheet and plate leveling, Weinfurtner also has something to say about level- ing in fabricating operations—both before and after cutting and punch- ing—that also can affect part quality.
“Leveling sheet prior to laser cutting, for example, results in greater cut accu- racy due to exceptional flatness and the removal of residual stress, so that the material doesn’t bounce up during the heat of the cutting process,” he explains. “But the heat from cutting reintroduces stresses, especially when cutting thousands of holes or employ- ing tight nesting, that can negatively affect flatness. That’s why some fabri- cators re-level parts after cutting. Com- bining automated deburring with post- cutting leveling will ease downstream work greatly and further reduce rejects.” MF