Metal is an important material used where we need maximum strength and durability. While it's strong, it gets dirty with rust. Metallic materials can't be cleaned with soap or washing powder. The rust eats metal until it's good for nothing, so it's important to keep cleaning it. A vibratory finishing machine is used to remove rust and clean them for finishing. They are very common in every industry that has to deal with any metal.
It's a mass finishing manufacturing process that makes it easy to clean, burnish, brighten, and deburr small workpieces. Vibratory finishing is also the final step of the plating process that grinds down the material and provides a polished touch.It looks like a tub in which metal pieces are put with a tumbling media.That tub may vibrate and rotate to ensure every part of the workpiece is thoroughly cleaned. The tumbling media here is an important factor to get the best results.
What is Tumbling Media?
Tumbling media is the stuff that rubs against the metal pieces inside vibratory finishing machines. If you have a good tumbling media, it'll clean better. Different types of media may work better for different metals. If you choose the right media, it'll provide cost-effective better quality finishing.
Some people use natural things, and some produce purpose-built finishing media. For example, rice is used in vibratory finishing; however, it may not give you as good results as a media that has been specially developed for a specific purpose and material. Some people also use glass beads for this job, but the most common finishing media materials are made of Ceramic, Plastic, Steel, and Organic Compounds.
Ceramic Media
It's one of the most commonly used tumbling media in the industry. Ceramic has a high density that allows you to easily grind and polish hard materials. Even the durable material such as titanium and steel are preferred finished with tumbling media of ceramic.Having a strong metal isn't enough to complete this job. It's necessary to provide the customers with a shining product. After mass production, their edges can also be a bit out of shape which needs to be fixed in this finishing process.
Ceramic also has porcelain which provides a sharp grinding and a shining touch. This media has but one flaw in it that it breaks into small pieces despite being durable. These chips become a problem when it lodges into small holes of the metal piece. For the finishing, ceramic tumbler media is mixed with one of the abrasives like silica, zirconium, or aluminum oxide. Some of these abrasives are useful to debur soft metal, and some provide tough grinding on hard materials.
Plastic Media
Tumbling media made of plastic usually have a base of polyester, urea, or formaldehyde. This type of media is better for cleaning metals such as zinc, aluminum, and brass that are softer compared to others.Just like ceramic, it also needs to be mixed with an abrasive. The material of abrasive depends on the objective you wish you achieve with it. Abrasives work the same way with plastic as they do with ceramic media. You can visit Inovatec Machinery to see and learn more about each type of tumbling media for your use.
Steel Media
Steel tumbling media is created by using stainless and hardened carbon steel. It's considered best to debur steel parts with its pressure. It is also very useful for polishing and burnishing other steels. It doesn't stick to primer socket of small cases like pistols like many other media do. Steel works great for any caliber and requires only water with 2 ounces of detergent for better polishing. Best of all it has the biggest life of all. It works for years, saving you a lot of time because you don't clean the workpieces. It is, however, expensive and takes about one day to dry.
Organic Media
Some of the common organic media are walnut shells and corn cob granules. They are most commonly used to dry the workpieces after they have been through the vibratory finishing. Their best quality is the ability to provide a high gloss finish which you can't get with any other media. They are naturally grown and acquired which also makes them cheaper.
How to Choose the Shape of the Media?
Just like the material, the size and shape of the tumbling media are also very important to get the finest cleaning and finishing touch. Both attributes are decided based on the material that needs finishing. The right shape and size ensure that there is no chipping or lodging and you can get best finishing.
The size is usually small enough to clean every narrow part of the piece without getting stuck. A large-sized media can't provide as smooth results as small media, but they don't take much of your time. Small tumbling media require gentler processing and take more time.
Round, Cylindrical, and Oval are the most commonly used shapes. All these shapes are admired for their quality of not lodging. On the other hand, sharp-edged shapes get easily stuck. Edged shapes like triangles, tri-star, and arrowheads may have a lodging issue, but they provide better finishing and clean even the most complex parts of the material where other media may not be able to reach. Another one of their issues is chipping. Round shapes don't usually chip because they have no sharp edges. These edged shapes, however, will need replacing more than often than others.