Deburring Case Study:  Flat, Powdered Metal Parts  
The McNeil OLS Model 5000 can store hundreds of part profiles. It compensates automatically for brush media wear to ensure consistent part quality.

McNeil OLS MAG 4 Series Deburring Machine

 

Closeup of powered metal part before deburring 

Before Deburring (above)
After Deburring (below).

Part after deburring. 

 

The Challenge

Our customer is a major contract manufacturer of powdered metal parts pressed into a wide variety of shapes. Their products are used in many automotive and fluid power applications.

Many of the parts have a low-profile and need deburring on both faces. The old deburring method utilized nylon disc brushes monitored by operators. When the first face had been completed, parts were turned over by hand for deburring of the opposite face, sometimes resulting in broken parts.

This customer wanted to grow their business, and they simply needed a much better way to fulfill their deburring requirements. With the McNeil OLS MAG Series, this automated solution drove the cost of deburring down dramatically, to just $ .04 per part.

The Solution: McNeil OLS MAG Series 4 x 2 Deburring Machine

The Mag 4x2 is an in-line deburring machine that houses two deburring platforms, essentially two deburring machines side-by-side. Both platforms incorporate three magnetic conveyors.

  • The first conveyor receives parts on its upper surface and moves them under two nylon brush heads rotating in opposite directions.

  • The second conveyor then captures the deburred upper face of the part, exposing the non-deburred lower face to two brushes approaching from below.

  • The third conveyor captures the deburred bottom face and passes the part through a demagnetizer. From there, parts are passed to an in-house conveyor system that moves them on to a sintering furnace.

The Result:

After a brief optimization period, customer costs for deburring operations dropped from $ .04 per part to $ .0125 per part--just 1/8 of a cent.  That equals a huge 3200% savings. 

Customer cost saving and uptime improvements were driven by these MAG Series features:

  • Use of larger diameter brushes and an integrated cooling system, which reduced brushing media costs. 

  • Our exclusive Auto-Amp Compensation system, which automatically adjusts brush positions to compensate for wear.

  • An Auto Setup screen, featuring easy-to use software to simplify setup for new parts.