Above: Deltec President Jason Dugle, left, Manufacturing Manager Colin Stith, General Manager Russell Ivey, Arku Inc. Sales Engineer Matt Baas and Department Head David Frost.

January 2023- Custom parts manufacturer boosts production and quality by automating double-sided deburring and edge rounding.

Deburred and edge-rounded parts are synonymous with quality, consistency, safety and aesthetics attributes upon which Deltec Inc. has built its business.

“Always make it look nice so that people keep coming to you,” said founder Thomas Dugle. According to Deltec General Manager Russell Ivey, this phrase has become a company creed that has helped the custom metal manufacturer secure its foothold in a niche that has become increasingly aggressive.

“Competitors have been multiplying since the majority of metal production work went to China in the early 2000s,” he says. “Everybody wants their share of the market, which has driven us to find ways to stand out even more.

“The diversity of our customer base, combined with their high-quality standards and specialized products, require attention to detail at every step in our production process,” Ivey says. “We can’t afford costly production flaws. Reliable, automated operations can help us satisfy customers, as well as answer the challenges of today’s staffing environment.”

The Batavia, Ohio-based company has traditionally deburred cut and punched parts manually. Deltec has an active part list of more than 20,000 different part numbers for more than 100 companies. These aluminum, carbon and stainless steel parts have sharp edges that require rounding to make welding and assembly easy. But the task is tedious, time-consuming and requires years of training to master the craft. Manual deburring and edge rounding can also be hazardous for operators. The need for an automated solution prompted the company to begin researching alternatives.

SINGLE-PASS PROCESSING

“Deltec had been using a deburring machine, but it wasn’t a viable option,” says Ivey. “It used wet deburring, which proved unsuitable for welding. It was a good fit for surface finishing but didn’t lend itself to downstream processes like edge rounding. Then we got a request from a customer for ‘butterknife-soft edges.’ Manual deburring had a significant negative impact on our consistency and capacity to meet this special requirement,” he says.

“Burr-free parts with rounded-off edges are a top priority for most companies, from medical applications to the food equipment industry,” says Arku Sales Engineer Matt Baas. Deltec considered several alternatives but Arku’s EdgeBreaker 2000 attracted the company’s attention with its ability to deburr and round edges in just a single pass. It was also the most intuitive and userfriendly machine when it came to operation and maintenance.

Deltec sent sample parts to Arku to be deburred on the EdgeBreaker. “What we saw on those test parts far exceeded our expectations,” says Ivey. “The burrs were gone, and a butterknife-soft edge was now a reality.”

The EdgeBreaker was installed on Deltec’s production floor in 2021. An Arku field technician, alongside Ivey, helped Deltec to set up the machine in the most efficient way possible. Most parts in the 0.04 in. to 0.19 in. thickness range are deburred and edge-rounded with the EdgeBreaker.

    The EdgeBreaker 2000 achieves uniform edge rounding on inner and outer contours with a single pass.

    The EdgeBreaker 2000’s user-friendly touchscreen HMI can be operated with or without gloves.

     With the EdgeBreaker 2000 the top part has been deburred and edge rounded from both sides in one pass making downstream processing more efficient and accurate.

“We laser cut approximately 90 percent of our items and 70 percent of those are run through the EdgeBreaker,” says Ivey. “Since the machine’s infeed can accommodate multiple parts simultaneously, we can process dozens of parts per hour. Depending on the material, size and other factors, it’s not uncommon to be able to process 200 to 400 parts per day.”

Instead of three employees performing grinding by hand, just one or two machine operators run the deburring department. Parts too small for the equipment are still manually deburred, but man hours have been significantly reduced.

The EdgeBreaker supports a broad part spectrum and has been engineered to provide doublesided deburring. “That feature is hard to find,” says Ivey. “We have achieved a 20 percent improvement in speed. This allows us to process more parts in our deburring system while reducing maintenance costs when compared to our previous equipment.”

     The EdgeBreaker 2000 can be outfitted with a variety of tools for processes like deburring, edge rounding and removal.

QUICK AND EASY

Abrasives in the form of blocks can be exchanged in 15 minutes for top and bottom, which helps Deltec minimize downtime. Dry deburring has also positively impacted production. Since the parts have no moisture on their surfaces, they don’t oxidize. As a result, welding is problem-free and parts fit together the first time around. “Deltec has been able to boost production and quality,” says Baas.

The EdgeBreaker’s intuitive touchscreen helps operators navigate various adjustments. “We only needed a short introduction from an Arku technician before we were using the machine ourselves,” Ivey says. “Now it’s fairly easy to set it up and switch between material thicknesses.”

Abrasive media for the EdgeBreaker’s various processing units are easily changed. Easy access helps operators perform routine cleaning and maintenance faster. The machine also measures the remaining length of the abrasive media and automatically compensates for wear, minimizing operator error.

“We fabricate thousands of different parts, so the flexibility of the EdgeBreaker comes in handy,” Ivey continues. “And I believe it would have met the approval of our quality- conscious founder.” -FFJ