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RapidDirect Tumbling Services
Optimize your parts with RapidDirect's Tumbling Finish Services, offering smooth, burr-free surfaces that enhance durability and appearance. Experience cost-effective processing, quick lead times, and precision designed to meet your specific requirements.
What is Tumbling?
Tumbling is a rough surface finishing process used to smoothen, polish, and deburs small parts. The process involves placing the small parts into a tumbling machine together with abrasive media, water, and surfactant.
The machine generates motion that causes the parts and media to rub against each other. This removes surface imperfections, sharp edges, and burrs, giving a consistent and polished finish.
The precision tumbling process can be high-energy tumbling, which involves placing the parts, media, water, and a surfactant in a barrel enclosed with a lid.
The barrel is rotated on a carousel holding other barrels. The carousel spun in one direction while the barrels spun in the opposite. This creates a powerful centrifugal force responsible for the tumbling deburring
Vibratory tumble deburring uses friction to smooth objects. It involves placing the parts and media in a vibratory bowl, which makes the media and the part move in a circular motion, causing a scrubbing action which give rise to the desired finish.
Tumbling Capabilities
| Applicable Materials | Visual Appearance | Can Be Applied With | Applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum, Steel, Stainless Steel | A process of smoothing metal surfaces with a slightly matte finish. | Achieve a non-stick smooth surface, usually with a glossy appearance. | Cookware, machine components, fasteners, valves, fittings, molds and dies |
Benefits of Teflon Coating
- It effectively removes sharp edges and burrs, leading to a uniform and polished surface
- High productivity as can polish multiple parts simultaneously
- Uniform quality due to its consistent and repeatability
- Compatible with many materials, including metals, plastics, ceramics, and composites.
- A polished surface enhances the part’s aesthetic appeal
- Reduce the risk of stress concentration points.
Notes
- Tumbling is a rough process that does not hide all machining marks.
- Parts with sharp or thin features are not ideal for this finishing option.
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FAQs
The main difference between tumble and vibratory finishing is in the process. On the one hand, you place the parts and media in a rotating barrel or drum in tumble finishing. On rotation, the parts and media tumble over each other, causing a sliding or rolling action. On the other hand, in vibratory finishing, you place the parts and media in a vibratory bowl, which makes the media and the part move in a circular motion, causing a scrubbing action.
Tumbling can remove up to 0.0005 inches of material when using aggressive media and extended finishing times. However, the material hardness, type of tumbling machine for metal parts, and tumbling method can all influence the material removal rate (MRR). Softer materials may be more susceptible to faster material removal, while harder materials may require longer tumbling times to achieve the same level of material removal. Additionally, the choice of tumbling media and the intensity of the tumbling process will also impact the MRR
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