Above: The 22 Series EdgeMaster can deburr, edge round and finish metal parts in one pass.
May, 2024- To properly serve a complete range of customers, companies tend to offer good, better and best solutions. Timesavers LLC is one such company, which builds grinding, sanding and finishing machines for metalworking applications, including equipment for edge rounding, deburring and surface finishing following a machining process, such as laser cutting, waterjetting, stamping or plasma cutting.
For the good level when deburring, edge breaking and finishing, the Maple Grove, Minnesota-based machinery builder offers a Scotchbrite barrel brush, which removes lateral burrs and performs preliminary edge breaking. The best is the rotary flap brush, which the company claims will create a superior edge radius along with lateral burr removal.
To complete the lineup by offering a machine with rotating top brushes, which provide optimal edge rounding plus lateral burr removal, as well as removal of laser oxide skin, Timesavers introduced the EdgeMaster about two years ago.
“We filled out that middle offering, where we were able to deliver customers a lot more edge conditioning with the top brush,” says Brent Fischmann, vice president sales-standard product channel. “The top brush technology is at a performance level just below the industry best, which is the rotary flap brush.”
Incorporating a top brush head in the 22 Series platform, the company’s initial EdgeMaster had one head with an abrasive belt and another head with four 10-in. top brushes that move back and forth while rotating, Fischmann explains. The following year, Timesavers introduced a threehead version in which a workpiece passes an abrasive belt, the top brushes and a Scotchbrite brush to introduce a linear grain and “give you the full spectrum all the way through re-graining and fine surface finishing in one pass.”
When processing a part with the threehead 22 Series EdgeMaster, the part passes rotating top brushes.
START THE FINISH
To begin the finishing process with EdgeMaster, a workpiece is placed on the machine’s vacuum bed, which transports it under the belts and brushes, Fischmann says. “A vacuum bed allows us to address smaller parts than we would have in some of the previous generation systems.”
He adds that the minimum part size is about 2 in. by 3 in., but it depends on how much surface area that workpiece has and how much of it is cut out. “It’s a relationship between the part surface area and the ability to access the vacuum. We’ve done smaller parts, but we advertise that kind of envelope just to get people to begin the discussion.”
In addition, the machine’s width is 37 in., so it can accept a 36-in. wide part, and parts up to 5-in. thick can be processed, Fischmann says. Workpiece length is not an issue if an end user has the proper material handling equipment to support a long continuous part feed, but part weight can play a role.
Part types include flats and square tubing and the machine is suitable for processing any alloy, he notes.
The standard abrasive is K80, which is an 80-grit aluminum-oxide abrasive paper with a Scotchbrite backing in between each layer of abrasive on the top brushes, says Ford Boone, Timesavers’ director of new products, projects and applications. “If you don’t know for sure, that’s the way to go.”
When finishing hardened steel or a challenging alloy, a user might switch to a ceramic or zirconium abrasive to cut more aggressively at the same speed. “Another option is to slow things down if the material is a little bit harder, and you can also achieve a better edge that way,” says Boone.
After an abrasive belt (not pictured) and before a Scotchbrite brush
A QUICK SHIFT
Depending on the application, some fabrication shops switch from the standard abrasive to a different one, and quick-disconnect mountings allow them to make the switch swiftly and easily, according to Fischmann. After a quarter twist of a bolt, the abrasive belt slides out, a new one is put in place another quarter twist locks it in, and finishing can resume.
Changing worn top brushes is also a breeze, he adds. “With an unskilled operator, they each probably take less than a minute.” Typically, the abrasive belts need to be changed after each shift , along with blowing the machine out with an air hose, Boone says. “Cleanliness is important.” He adds that top brushes often last several months, depending on use. One indicator that the abrasive media is becoming dull or needs replacement is when motor loads climb but the finish quality degrades, Boone explains. “Usually over time, customers will get a feel for it.” The EdgeMaster is a dry machine with a dust extraction system, Boone says. An extraction hood collects dust or swarf close to the top brushes where a part is deburred and a tube transports the debris to a wet dust collector where it becomes a liquid, which is removed when the collector is full.
Boone says Timesavers refers to EdgeMaster as fixed automation, eliminating the expense and inconsistencies of deburring and fi nishing parts manually.
AUTOMATION ASPECT
“Timesavers then lets [customers] automate an entire process, remove their bottlenecks, handle all their parts. It is an automation of handwork. We like to say these are the hands you can’t hire anymore.” As the requirements for edge conditioning and finishing become more stringent for product safety and function, users are seeking machines to improve job performance and stay competitive, according to Boone.
Boone adds that automation can be added to the equipment for basic material handling and part tending, such as infeed and outfeed conveyors and pick-and-place robots. On the robotic tending side, the company recommends a collaborative robot from Productive Robotics LLC in Carpinteria, California.
“In my opinion, it’s one of the most userfriendly, easiest-to-program robots that I’ve seen,” he says.
There are no specialty programming skills required to create programs, Boone says, while it is easy to edit and copy existing programs.
Whether a fabricator saves money by replacing time-consuming manual operations with machine processing that takes a fraction of the time, or eliminates a finishing bottleneck and boosts throughput, Fischmann says the return on investment when purchasing a 22 Series EdgeMaster edge rounding machine is quick. “I’ve never seen one that’s over 12 months.”
Timesavers LLC, 763-488-6600, http://timesaversinc.com/
