Technical Info

There are five main types of barrel finishing: fluid, rotary, centrifugal, vibratory, and magnetic. In some cases, solids are added without water, in which case it is called dry barrel, and when water is added to the medium, it is called wet barrel. In this section, we will discuss the mainstream wet type and rotary type.

The rotary method has been used around the world for many years, and many companies in Germany and other countries are proud to have maintained this tradition for three generations of parents and children. The workpiece is placed in a rotating drum, and the drum is rotated in a fixed direction to stir the workpiece, resulting in a slow grinding process. The simple structure makes maintenance easy, reduces breakdowns, and can be handled inexpensively. Grinding time ranges from a few dozen minutes to several days. I would say about two hours is more common.

The workpiece and abrasive (media) must be separated, and since the workpiece is contaminated with abrasives and compounds, water-based cleaning is required after barrel polishing. Of course, wastewater treatment must also be considered. Due to the above processes, this method is not suitable for automation in mass production plants for precision parts. In general, because of the heavy workload, it is difficult to attract young human resources, and the reality is that male workers over 60 years old with few job openings and foreigners are asked to do this work.

Ultrasonic barrel finishing is the exact opposite. No media is used. The workpieces are placed in a hexagonal rotating cage, and the cage is rotated in water to simultaneously deburr, polish, and clean the workpieces using ultra-powerful ultrasonic waves. Automatic drying is easy, if necessary. Light work. Even a woman can do it. No need to worry about wastewater treatment. Faster polishing time than existing barrel finishing. This is because deburring, polishing, and cleaning are performed by the synergistic effects of the co-abrasive vibration effect of more than 20,000 times per second and the positive and negative shock waves of the huge numerous vacuum energy balls – cavities (micro vacuum nuclei) with a maximum diameter of 10mm generated by ultrasonic waves.

As ultrasonic barrel finishing is commercialized and spread around the world, customers are faced with the choice of continuing with their existing barrel finishing process or introducing ultrasonic polishing in order to strengthen their international competitiveness through increased automation, reduced labor costs, and consistent quality.

We will exhibit one model at the Japan Monodzukuri World to be held at Tokyo Big Sight in June.

by shibano