Above: Deltec purchased the ARKU EdgeBreaker 6000 to deburr, edge round and surface finish various sheet metal parts the shop produces.
December, 2024- Many machine or fabrication shops that seek to stay competitive have switched from manual to automated parts deburring. Deltec Inc. is one example.
The Batavia, Ohio, custom fabricator employs nearly 50 workers and provides a host of capabilities, including laser cutting, punching, CNC machining, CNC bending, TIG and MIG welding, metal finishing, powder coating and assembly.
In the past, multiple employees in the shop manually deburred everything with les and handheld belt tools before the company purchased a machine to perform the task, says Colin Stith, manufacturing manager. Unfortunately, that solution proved to be cumbersome and did not achieve the consistent high-quality results that were required.
While attending a trade show several years ago, Stith says Deltec saw the EdgeBreaker 2000, a deburring machine for laser cut and punched parts from ARKU Inc. in Cincinnati. The machine also performs doublesided edge rounding and light burr removal in a single pass.
However, he adds, that model is not designed to process parts smaller than 7 in., which Deltec produces in large quantities. “So, I was looking to get a small deburring machine from them, the EdgeBreaker 1000.”
CHANGE OF PLANS
The EdgeBreaker 1000 is a cost-effective machine for single-sided deburring, edge rounding and surface finishing small sheet metal parts, according to ARKU.
But when Stith went to ARKU to examine the machine about a year ago, he says the EdgeBreaker 6000 on display grabbed his attention instead. He says he thought “This is the way we probably need to go because it has three stations, and we were able to do much smaller parts.”
Rotary brushes in the EdgeBreaker 6000 uniformly round the inner and outer contours of edges as they hit the sheet metal in various directions
According to ARKU, the EdgeBreaker 6000 is the most versatile of its German-built automated deburring machines for laser job shops. In addition to single-sided deburring with a wide grinding belt, the machine performs edge rounding with rotary brushes and surface finishing with a eece abrasive belt in a third station. A built-in vacuum table enables large and small sheet metal parts to be processed securely. ARKU also makes EdgeBreaker 3000, 4000 and 5000 models.
The EdgeBreaker 6000 can process parts up to 51 in. wide and as small as 2 in. by 2 in., Stith notes. The machine can process parts up to 1 in. thick, but most of Deltec’s parts are significantly thinner, such as 13- to 16-gauge, with some up to about ¼-in. thick. “About 90 percent of what we do is coming o the laser. We run most all of our parts through to perform deburring and edge rounding.”
The machine can round an edge with a radius up to 2 mm, but Stith says customers do not specify a radius requirement but “just want a butter knife smooth edge, so our guys run their hands down it and make sure it has no burrs.” He adds that edge rounding helps deburr parts.
The remainder of the parts that Deltec processes in the machine are punched, and those typically have minor burrs, according to Stith. “As long as the parts are at, it can deburr them.”
PITCH AND CATCH
Although the machine processes one side at a time, he says that’s not an issue and the shop processes more parts in the Edgebreaker 6000 compared to the previous machine because of its ability to manage smaller parts. When the parts are fairly large, such as 110 in. long by 20 in. wide, operators will perform “pitch and catch,” where an operator feeds the workpiece into the machine, and another receives it from the machine and flips it to process the other side. “If we have to flip it, we have to flip it, but most of the stuff that we have doesn’t require going through twice.”
Colin Stith (center), manufacturing manager at Deltec, and Denis Weinfurtner, North America marketing manager for ARKU, with the EdgeBreaker 6000.
Because Deltec laser cuts and punches a variety of workpieces, it must avoid cross contamination of materials, Stith explains, noting that mixing aluminum and stainless steel would likely not create a problem. “The biggest thing is not getting carbon steel onto aluminum or stainless.”
Nonetheless, when changing from any material to another, an operator changes the grinding belt, which only takes a minute and no additional tools are needed, he notes. “We have belts [specied] for different materials.”
The Edgebreaker has a wet dust extraction system, allowing users to process all metal alloys safety, which is especially beneficial when processing aluminum parts and suppressing the dust that’s generated, Stith says. “Usually, the most dangerous [activity] is grinding aluminum and making sure it doesn’t catch on fire.”
Stith says Deltec purchases its grinding belts, rotary brushes and finishing fleeces from ARKU. Operators monitor tool wear and determine when a new belt or brush is needed, such as when seeing a diminished surface finish on a part. In addition, the EdgeBreaker 6000 measures the remaining length of the abrasives in the rotary brushes and automatically compensates for wear.
Every Friday afternoon, Deltec performs maintenance by wiping the machine, cleaning the dust collectors and swapping out the abrasives depending on what material will be processed, Stith says.
“We usually take a couple of hours on Friday afternoon to clean basically the whole shop because I like to come into a clean place on Monday.”
To help operators automatically adjust the processing setting up the machine, ARKU offers Wizard intelligent software. Only four parameters (material, size of burrs, material thickness and desired edge rounding) need to be entered. The software automatically selects the best deburring tools and processing settings for the particular requirements, according to ARKU. In doing so, the Wizard optimally adjusts the deburring machine to maximize productivity and minimize tool wear.
Regardless of the number of stations used for a job, Stith says the software recommends the grit type needed and the throughput speeds and adjustment settings. Operators can also adjust the machine individually per station. “A lot of my guys use either one, but for the processes that we have set, mainly it’s just a matter of inputting the thickness.”
The speed and consistency of deburring has improved considerably from the days when Deltec hand-deburred parts, he says, but one element signicantly decreased. “I had probably five guys just deburring parts. Now, I’ve got two guys in that department, and they keep up with the lasers. That was a big benefit for us.”
ARKU Inc., 513/985-0500, http://arku.com/
Deltec Inc., 513/732-0800, http://deltec-inc.com/