Deburring Operation on Burrs

The deburring operation is performed by the deburring tool to remove burrs. Burrs are thin ridges, usually triangular in shape and they are usually an unwanted piece of material that develop along the edges of a workpiece from operations such as machining, shearing sheet metal, and trimming forgings, castings. Burrs can be detected by simple means, such as with a finger, toothpick or cotton swab. Visual inspection of burrs includes the use of magnifiers and microscopes. Although efforts at defining burr are being made, there are no widely accepted standards, partly because there a variety of burrs can develop on parts.

Disadvantages of Durrs:

Burrs have several disadvantages, few of them are:

1. They may interfere with the mechanical assembly of parts and can cause jamming and misalignment of parts, as well as short circuits in electrical components.
2. Because they are usually sharp, they can be a safety hazard to personnel.
3. Burrs may reduce the fatigue life of components.
4. Sheet metal may have lower bendability if the burr is on the tensile side. On the other hand, burrs on thin drilled or tapped components can provide additional thickness and thus improve the holding torque of screws.

Several deburring processes are available. Their cost-effectiveness depends on factors such as the extent of deburring required, part complexity and burr location, the number of parts to be deburred, floor space available, labor costs, and safety and environmental considerations.

Deburring Operations Include:

1. Manual deburring with files and scrapers. It is estimated that manual deburring can contribute up to 10% of the cost of manufacturing the part.
2. Mechanical deburring by machining pieces such as cylindrical parts on a rotating spindle.
3. Wire brushing or using rotary nylon brushes consisting of filaments embedded with abrasive grits.
4. Using abrasive belts.
5. Ultrasonic machining.
6. Electropolishing.
7. Electrochemical machining.
8. Magnetic abrasive finishing.
9. Vibratory finishing.
10. Shot blasting or abrasive blasting.
11. Abrasive flow machining.
12. Thermal energy machining using lasers or plasma.