April 2007 Edition
Deburring
Deburring Turns Into a Cinderella Story
The unique shape of an electronic part brought deburring challenges to a Rhode Island
shop. The right machine solved the problem and began paying for itself as soon as it was off the delivery truck.
Quality is a key issue for Lavigne Manufacturing, Inc., Cranston, RI. One of the
jobs it had was finishing heat-sinks for a Fortune 500 electronics manufacturer.
Deburring was part of the finishing process. Because of the geometry of the heat
sink, deburring the part to Lavigne’s own quality standard proved a challenge.
Lavigne secured the finishing contract in 2005. On the surface it was routine work:
Lavigne would buy extrusions, cut them to size, and send them to one of the company’s
27 CNC milling centers to drill the mounting holes.
The sawing and drilling processes were straight forward, but deburring the ends
proved problematic. Sawing left burrs on the ends of extrusions. The intricate fin design complicated the burr removal process. Lavigne had to remove the burrs from
each fin as well as the base.
Mission: Impossible
“Deburring heat sinks manually,” Ray Lavigne, special projects manager, said, “would
be impossible.”
The company searched for alternatives to hand deburring and chose a fiber abrasive
deburring system manufactured by Abtex Corp., Dresden, NY. Abtex has manufactured
fiber abrasive brushes since 1978 and end deburring systems since 1980.
Lavigne chose fiber abrasive deburring material for its flexible, multi-directional
wiping ability. The abrasive action is concentrated on the ends of the extrusion,
minimizing any effect on the lateral surface. This, coupled with the system’s precise
control of parts penetration into the brush face, result in faster, more complete
deburring.
Abrasive filament is composed of heat-stabilized nylon that has been extruded with
abrasive grit. The grit is impregnated throughout the filament, as well as exposed
on the external surfaces. As the filament wears, new abrasive grit is exposed.
The filament is, in effect, self-sharpening. Abrasive action occurs on both the
tip and the sides of the filament. Slower rpm rates let the fiber strike and wipe
against the surface combined with the flexibility of the fibers to finish irregularly-
shaped objects, such as the heat sinks.
Abtex abrasive fibers are anchored in the company’s special, durable resin backing
so the operator need not worry about brushes wearing to the point where a metal
backing, used in other types brushes, contacts the workpiece.
Hassle-Free
Lavigne said he was pleased with the easy installation and short learning curve.
“We took the machine off the truck and we were deburring parts within minutes. The
hassle-free setup allowed for a quick turnaround.”
As a supplier to a number of Fortune 500 companies, such as the electronics company
whose heat sinks Lavigne manufactures, everyone in the firm is quality-conscious,
such as with the heat sink deburring effort.
After sawing, heat sinks are delivered to an Abtex short parts, double-headed, flow-through deburring system where four 12" fiber abrasive brushes deburr both ends
of the heat sinks in a single pass. This machine, designed for extrusions 1" to
3" long, deburrs up to 1,200 parts per hour.
A conveyor system moves parts from the saw to the deburring machine where a team
member loads the parts into the deburring machine. The team member also adjusts
the brushes for proper penetration as the abrasive filaments wear. The parts exit
the deburring system to another conveyor to a packing station where they are placed
in special in-plant boxes for transport to the machining center for drilling.
If the Glass Shoe Fits . . .
“This machine is a Cinderella story,” Lavigne said. “As soon as we load a part,
it comes right back, without burrs. We literally cannot feed the parts in quick
enough, it’s that fast. Whether we’re running a manual feed and unload or an automatic
conveyor system, this machine produces results. The speed of the process and the
quality of the finished product are almost magical.”
The system cost about $55,000 and began paying for itself immediately by automating
the deburring process. Manual deburring was cost-prohibitive and systems using other
deburring materials could not deliver the necessary quality. So, the Abtex system
was one of the factors that allowed Lavigne to successfully negotiate the contract
for finishing the heat sinks.
In the 18 months the company worked on the project, it used six sets of four brushes,
costing less than $150 per brush, so the total was less than $3,600. For deburring
the 75,000-part run, the cost per part was less than five cents.
Lavigne said the 120-employee business is a job shop specializing in parts made
of aluminum and exotic alloys. Besides heat sinks, the company manufactures precision
parts for a wide variety of industries, including automotive, construction, and
aerospace. Ray Lavigne’s brothers, David, Daniel, and Gerard, established the company
in 1989.
During the last 18 years, growth prompted the company to move from its original
location to larger quarters. When the second location became cramped, the company
added more buildings. Now it occupies 40,000 feet2 in three buildings in the same
Cranston industrial complex where it began. Abtex
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