Featured End User 2 - Deburring and Flash Removal

During our initial cost savings study it became quite clear that this End User had very specific finishing requirements. They had two applications for each part, first deburr the part after stamping, and apply a specific finish for each part. Their process consisted of using several different grits as well as types of grains to achieve this process. This situation caused quite of bit of machine down time to change each machine to match the part that was being run. The main belt was an 80 grit zirconia belt that would be purposely dressed or worn down to match the required finish needed for the part. We quickly saw a huge opportunity for compact grain. Compact grain is a cluster of grains to make up a much larger “compact grain.” This grain could have up to 15 to 20, 80 grit grains within the cluster. Instead of wasting machine down time or dressing belts to a certain grit we could provide a belt in several grits that would last 15 to 20 longer without any dressing required. This was very appealing to the end user. However, this required us to perform quite a bit of internal lab work to match each grain size to each part that was made.

PG830 on Pneumatic Belt Grinder - In-House Surface Measurements by Grit Size
	180 Grit		320 Grit		600 Grit
	RA Values	RY Values	RA Values	RY Values	RA Values	RY Values
0 minutes	1.32	7.32	1.32	7.32	1.32	7.32
	1.74	10.87	1.74	10.87	1.74	10.87
	1.67	10.16	1.67	10.16	1.67	10.16
	1.40	9.21	1.40	9.21	1.40	9.21
	1.74	10.29	1.74	10.29	1.74	10.29
	1.67	10.89	1.67	10.89	1.67	10.89
	1.41	9.26	1.41	9.26	1.41	9.26
Average at 0 minutes	1.564	9.714	1.564	9.714	1.564	9.714
5 minutes	1.37	10.37	0.64	6.79	0.60	3.88
	1.50	11.19	0.68	5.74	0.53	4.05
	1.37	10.10	0.81	5.90	1.28	9.20
	1.54	11.21	0.70	5.86	0.25	2.59
	1.45	10.16	0.65	5.04	1.04	7.20
Average after 5 minutes	1.446	10.606	0.696	5.866	0.740	5.384
10 minutes			0.53	4.96	0.25	2.82
			0.82	6.34	0.79	6.45
			0.54	4.30	0.62	5.10
			0.80	6.05	0.53	4.75
			0.82	5.78	0.90	8.35
Average after 10 minutes			0.702	5.486	0.618	5.494
15 minutes			0.58	5.12	0.27	2.80
			0.81	7.08	0.33	3.14
			0.56	4.59	0.32	3.91
			1.13	7.84	0.35	3.48
			0.74	6.46	0.64	4.79
Average after 15 minutes			0.764	6.218	0.382	3.624
20 minutes			0.78	6.72
			0.67	5.78
			1.02	7.67
			0.56	4.95
			0.70	5.82
Average after 20 minutes			0.746	6.188
25 minutes			0.57	4.70
			0.70	5.34
			0.61	4.20
			0.90	6.32
			0.85	6.56
Average after 25 minutes			0.726	5.424
30 minutes			0.60	5.49
			0.53	3.89
			0.64	5.48
			0.66	5.15
			0.54	4.41
Average after 30 minutes			0.594	4.884

 

Sample of Shop Floor Evaluation Form

It was critical that we could prove the 15 to 1 performance factors by operator on the shop floor to justify the movement from conventional coated abrasives to compact grain construction. We used the following form to track our progress.

Machine Name
Operators Name
Shift
Start Time
Finish Time
Part# / Name Being Ground
Belt Size / Grit
Number of Pieces per 60 Minutes	60 Minutes	120 Minutes	180 Minutes	240 Minutes	300 Minutes
	360 Minutes	420 Minutes	480 Minutes	540 Minutes	600 Minutes
	660 Minutes	720 Minutes	780 Minutes	840 Minutes	900 Minutes
				Total # of Pcs
	Belt Cost (+) Labor Rate Divided by # of PCS = Grinding Ratio