A costing exercise by the Deburring Centre for a northern precision engineering company has saved more than expected. The component was a turned part with a number of cross holes, being deburred in one cycle on a machine.

The deburring part of the cycle was taking just 11 seconds and on initial inspection was not significant enough to justify further action. The job was subcontracted to a specialist deburrer for a process that removes loose burrs from internal cross holes and impossible to reach edges. Savings of £210 per batch were made, even after accounting for transport and logistics costs and as the job ran continuously, projected annual savings were £9,660. The dedicated deburring process also did a better job and the extra machining time released was estimated at over £48k per annum.

Paddy House, Deburring Centre’s Managing Director, said: ‘We are experiencing an increased number of companies who had never considered subcon deburring until their present bottlenecks. They are often pleasantly surprised that it is cost effective and with a better result.’ The automated Thermal Energy Method (TEM) compares favourably to hand deburring, which produces varied results, or even machine deburring, which still produces burrs, although much smaller. The smaller burrs are still liable to become loose in service, with implications for safety. A seal manufacturer has stated that most seal failures can be directly attributed to burrs.

An added advantage of TEM is that by using a gas, which is non-abrasive to the component’s surfaces, all potential loose burrs and contaminants are guaranteed to be removed; there is no hole too small or part too inaccessible for the gas to permeate.

www.deburr.co.uk