Inovatec MachineryYour Best Vibratory Finishing Machine Manufacturer in China

Finishing Machine

Inovatec surface finishing machines include vibratory finishing machines, centrifugal disc finishing machines, centrifugal barrel finishing machines, rotary barrel finishing machines as well as automatic vibratory finishing machines. We will give you our recommendation on which device to use according to your parts’ conditions.

We are proud of our high-quality surface vibratory finishing machines.

As you know, motor and PU lining are the critical components in the vibratory polishing machine. Therefore, we use the most top standard motor in China with NSK bearing. Meanwhile, PU lining raw material comes from Dow Chemicals.

The PU lining is cast with the hot-poured process with an automatic casting machine, while temperature and chemical reaction are precisely controlled. So the PU lining is made sure to have D90+ hardness and best wear-resistance.

Certificated with CE and ISO 9001 International standard, Inovatec vibratory bowl finishing machines are not only excellent mechanically but also superior esthetically.

We use corrosion-resistant Nippon paint to protect the device after the blasting and primer layer. Besides, Inovatec vibratory machines are highly flexible according to users’ conditions. Whether you need a low budget machine, a compact design machine to accommodate your workshop space, or a fully automatic engine to save your labor, we offer you readily available solutions that can greatly help you.

Inovatec machinery is the leading manufacturer of all types of vibratory finishing equipment for over 20 years. We strive to find the best solution to meet our client’s surface requirements at the best price.

If you want to improve your product surface condition, please feel free to send us the parts. We will do no obligation free sample processing for you and send it back to you for checking. We will skyrocket your business with our quality finishing equipment. Contact us and get the technical advice now!

Finishing Machine FAQ Guide

1. What is a finishing machine?

Finishing machines offer a broad range of industrial processes intended for altering the shape, form, or surface of workpieces. These machines are used on manufactured items to achieve certain results or meet specified requirements. A finishing machine may thus be employed to improve appearance, wettability, adhesion, solderability, or corrosion resistance.

In addition, they come in handy for exposing chemical resistance, wear resistance, or hardness. These machines are perfect for modifying electrical conductivity, burrs removal, surface friction control, and resolving other surface flaws. At other times, these machines help to restore the workpiece’s original dimensions to repair it.

2. What are the working constituents of a finishing machine?

There are several important components involved in the efficient working of finishing machines. They include:

The machine – These are the essential, interconnected hardware or machine parts that make the finishing process achievable.

Some of the most prominent parts are:

The work tub/bowl/chamber

This is the enclosed space within which the parts are enhanced and mass-finished. This is where the media, compound, water, and parts are combined for the process. They are usually lined with high quality, wear-resistant elastomer polyurethane.

Motor

This is the machine part that supplies the power – either vibratory, centrifugal, or tumbling – that’s needed to kickstart and complete the finishing process.

Water/compound system

Ideally, all finishing machines have control systems that regulate the flow of water and compound for cooling and cleaning effects.

Work chamber cover

To minimize the noise level, finishing machines sometimes come with an acoustic lid or sound isolation cabin.

Electrical controls

Like every other industrial machinery, finishing machines have electrical control systems. The control board includes push-button controls and display units for all machine functionalities.

Water: Water helps normalize the machine’s cooling system during the finishing process. It also helps wash away scraped materials from the workpieces.

The media: These are the solid material that make the required touches on workpieces possible. These controlled materials make contact with the workpieces, which efficiently fine tunes workpiece’s surfaces.

The compound – These are dry or wet substances that protect the machine from corrosion and rust. They are added to the machine to assist in the overall finishing process.

3. How does the finishing machine work?

Finishing machines are a general term that refers to machines used for deburring, cutting, smoothing, shaping, polishing, or cleaning manufactured items.

The finishing process involves the loading of the unfinished workpieces into the finishing machines, such as tumbling barrels, vibratory machines, and centrifugal barrel machines. Along with the workpieces, finishing media and compounds are also put into it, with or without water. Once the finishing machine starts, the media rub upon the workpieces while being suspended in the finishing fluids.

The media and compounds have abrasive properties which cause the excess material – that the workpiece is made of – to be abraded away. A finishing machine can be a tumbling machine which is a barrel designed to rotate, or a vibratory tumbling machine that’s meant to vibrate at very high speed.

4. What are the functions performed by a finishing machine?

Deburring:

Deburring is the process of removing sharp edges or burrs on metals, left after machining.

A common deburring example is smoothening a sharp corner into a rounded corner in a piece of metal.

Descaling:

This is similar to deburring.

It also smoothens the finish of a metal workpiece.

Descaling removes the leftover machine lines in the process of milling and shape-cutting metals.

Smoothing/Polishing:

Polishing – also called burnishing – takes the workpiece to the next level of smoothness.

It makes the workpiece shiny and to attain a mirror-like look.

Cleaning/Degreasing:

One of the usages of a finishing machine is surface cleaning.

They help to cleanse parts from specks of dirt. Such dirt or stain may include grease, dust or other residues stuck on the workpiece from previous processing.

5. What are the different categories of finishing machines?

Finishing machines are often categorized by how they affect the parts. They include:

Abrasive blasting finishing machines

Abrasive blasting machines are those that operate by forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material against the parts’ surface under high pressure.

More commonly known as sandblasting machines, they smoothen and/or roughen surfaces, shape/reshape workpiece surfaces, or remove surface contaminants.

Pressurized fluid or compressed air is used to propel the blasting material (i.e. the media).

Burnishing finishing machines

Burnishing finishing machines make use of a plastic deformation process to enhance parts.

Such friction occurs when the part’s surface makes a rubbing contact with the media. They essentially help smoothen surfaces and make them shinier.

These machines and their processes may be used on any sliding surface if the contact stress locally exceeds the yield strength of the material.

Grinding/Abrasive cutting finishing machines

Grinding machines use an abrasive machining process that uses a grinding wheel as the cutting tool.

They are capable of producing fine finishes and accurate dimensions.

However, they are usually better suited for finishing very hard materials than “regular” ones.

Compared to regular machines, these machines are best suited for taking very shallow cuts.

It’s important to note that most modern finishing machines are usually versatile in functionality, i.e. a burnishing machine can – in addition to its burnishing capability – also grind workpieces.

6. Of what importance is the media to a finishing machine?

A finishing machine can’t perfectly refine or improve surfaces, all by itself. Finishing media are therefore an important addition to the finishing process. They help achieve various surface preparations and finishing of workpieces.

Finishing media could be natural like corn cob media and walnut shell media, or artificial media like plastic deburring media and ceramic media. The distinction between them is that natural media provide soft abrasive action on the parts, while artificial media are used for medium to heavy deburring.

Plastic media – being lighter – are used with delicate and fragile parts, while ceramic media are used with heavy parts that need cutting.

Finishing media come in assorted shapes to make handling of different workpiece sizes and patterns easier. Popular media shapes include cone, pyramid, cylinder, triangle, and so on.

Finishing media are designed for one or more of four things:

Cutting: Finishing media that cut and remove burrs, also smoothen surfaces. Cutting media help develop dull, matte surfaces.

Luster: Some grades of media are designed to etch luster finishes on metal surfaces.

These finishing media are generally non-abrasive or have a very low degree of abrasiveness.

They deburr by peening rather than by actually removing the burr.

Part separation: Another very important function of finishing media is to separate parts. This occurs during surface improvement or enhancement operations.

Surface scrubbing: Finishing media also can scrub surfaces and clean workpieces.

Both abrasive and non-abrasive media are effective in this aspect. They can help remove organic soils, scale, and other inorganic residues.

7. What is the importance of compound to a finishing machine?

Finishing compounds are added to finishing machines to increase deburring action, remove scales, scour surfaces, and clean workpieces.

Additionally, they modify the luster or color of the workpieces by adding corrosion-inhibiting coatings on metallic parts.

Generally, most finishing compounds are combinations of soluble chemicals that form solutions that enhance the action of media against the workpieces.

Good compounds include water, water conditioners, cleaners, wetting agents, lubricants, foam control agents, pH buffers (pH control chemicals), rinse agents, and emollients. Some also contain metal brighteners and corrosion inhibitors. The list of chemicals that a finishing compound may contain is usually extremely long.

The amounts or percentage of chemicals used depends on the desired results and the economics of the manufacturer or user. However, there are situations where compounds are not used in the finishing process. For example, some workpieces are sometimes finished dry, perhaps with sawdust, ground corncobs, wood pegs, or other media.

Media for dry finishing is often treated with oil, grease, or wax-based formulation with finely-powdered abrasives to produce smooth surface finishes.

The highlighted functions of compounds include:

• Keeping the workpieces clean and inhibiting corrosion
• Enhancing workpiece brightness and helping them develop certain colors after finishing
• Removal of soil, grease, or oil from parts
• Provision of corrosion resistance for ferrous and non-ferrous parts.
• Maintenance of consistent water hardness and level of metal ions

8. What are the ways to best maintain a finishing machine?

Like humans, machines need maintenance to guarantee their longevity.

To get the most out of a finishing machine, certain dos and don’ts need to be adhered to. They include:

Periodic maintenance:

Machines generally need proper and periodic maintenance, including servicing. Doing this enhances their day-to-day performance and helps resolve internal operation issues.

Ensuring the machine is in good condition before usage:

It’s important to habitually check for internal and exterior damages before putting the machine into use. Doing this helps safeguard the workplace from preventable accidents, including spillings, outbursts, and so on.

Monitoring the media, compound, water level:

For no reason whatsoever, you should not allow their levels to become too low.

Some deliberately reduce media level to save money or to mass finish more workpieces. The consequence ranges from slow process time to component damage to non-qualitative finishing.

9. What industries can best take advantage of a finishing machine?

Finishing machines are generally versatile and are usable in all manufacturing industries.

Some of their specific industrial usages include:

Jewelry:

It’s a known fact that pieces of jewelry that have been neglected for so long and are improperly kept accumulate specks of dust and varying other particles. These impurities combine to start having unimaginable effects on the prior-enticing surfaces of these items. Jewelry shops, therefore, make use of finishing machines to return jewelry items back to an enhanced state.

General Job Shop:

At general machine shops, finishing machines provide cost-effective, quick enhancement for varieties of items and parts.

Automotive:

The automotive industry benefits so much from the usage of finishing machines. Its usage helps in enhancing automotive parts that are put under day-to-day usage by end-users.

In particular, the automotive industry uses the machine in finishing gears & fasteners, engine heads, motorbike wheels, silencers, pistons, and virtually all parts of automobiles. They are also perfect for refurbishing automobile components and engine parts, be it cast or forged.

Aerospace and Defense:

In these industries, metal smoothness and strength is usually a crucial requirement for products.

Manufacturers therein thus use finishing machines to optimize and give varying finishes to workpieces.

Medical Device:

Final consumers of medical device products expect consistent, high-quality finishes.

Finishing machines help deliver assorted types of surface enhancement on medical devices made of stainless steel, titanium, cobalt chrome, and others.

Motorsports:

Motorsports products are often associated with glossy and polished outlooks.

Such surface quality is also achieved with the aid of finishing machines.

10. What are the benefits of using a finishing machine?

Several benefits accrue from the usage of finishing machines. The prominent ones among them are:

Corrosion Resistance

Finishing machines help to eliminate roughness and micro-notches in a workpiece. It helps give a workpiece greater resistance against rust and other forms of metal corrosion. In essence, a properly finished workpiece is less likely to develop cracks and other imperfections.

Strain Hardening

Finishing machines help condense the structure of inserted metallic workpieces to increase their hardness. A finished workpiece is 50 to 100% harder than its unburnished counterpart, i.e., one with a mill finish. This makes it more resistant to fatigue failure.

Polished Finish

Not only is a finished workpiece stronger, but it also becomes more polished. Finishing machines effectively eliminate minor visual defects by polishing the surface to a desirable smoothness.

11. What is the flipside to using a finishing machine, if any?

The usage of finishing machines comes with several side effects, which its users must take note of before employing the processes. Indeed, many of these side effects are beneficial, but some may not be depending on your reason for finishing a workpiece.

In addition to enhancing workpiece surfaces, finishing machines can also:

• radius or blunt part edges
• change part dimensions
• compact a part’s surface “pores”
• remove oxides and heavy scale from a part
• change a part’s flatness
• prevent electroplating adhesion (if the wrong media is used)
• prevent soldering (if the wrong abrasives are used)
• cause blowholes in welded joints (if the wrong abrasives are used)
• create large compressive stresses on a part
• cause dings, scratches, and dents to a part
• improve or worsens corrosion rates
• change part luster
• change part color
• change friction
• decontaminate radioactive surfaces

Essentially, the key is to determine what your needs are and making sure to make the right choice of finishing equipment.

It’s also important to make use of appropriate media as well as finishing compound.

12. How much does an average finishing machine cost?

It’s perhaps impossible to put a price tag on the average cost of a finishing machine. The reason for this is that various factors contribute to determining the purchase price of a finishing machine. Such factors include the horsepower, size, type, and in some cases, the manufacturer of the finishing machine.

13. What are the step-by-step processes of using a finishing machine?

No matter the type and category of finishing machines, they all more or less, share the same type of operating processes.

The first step is to determine the most appropriate process and equipment to use. Generally, this requires numerous discussions with finishing equipment vendors.

After arriving at the perfect machine choice, there are some other considerations to make. They are:

• Determining the required degree of finishing that’s needed.
• Determining the allowable size change by reviewing piece part tolerance.
• Estimating the starting burr size.
• Determining the required cycle time needed for the result.
• Selecting an appropriate media size for the workpiece size
• Verifying that the media will not lodge in the workpiece
• Determine what subsequent operation might be affected by the media or compound choice (welding, soldering, plating, etc).
• Determining unique requirements and manufacturing restraints.
• Verifying that parts on hand and work instructions match.
• Validating that media is not likely to lodge in small crevices or holes.
• Operating machine per instructions on operations sheet.
• Cleaning parts.
• Rinse media.
• Verify that finished parts meet requirements.
• Moving parts as indicated