PRESENTED BY

High-Speed Dry Spindle Deburring

and Finishing of Rotating Hardware

Dr. Michael Massarsky, President, Turbo-Finish Corporation

Dave Davidson, SME Deburring Technical Group,

Turbo-Abrasive Machining and Finishing• Turbo-Abrasive Machining

(TAM) is a mechanical deburring and finishing method originally developed primarily to automate edge finishing procedures on complex rationally oriented and symmetrical aerospace engine components

• Since its inception this method of utilizing fluidized free abrasive materials has facilitated significant reductions in the amount of manual intervention required to deburr large components by these manufacturers

• Additionally, the process has also proved to be useful in edge and surface finishing a wide variety of other non-rotational components by in incorporating these components into fixing systems

Automated Deburring, Edge-Contour, Isotropic Finishing

Turbo-Abrasive Machining (TAM) and Finishing

• Turbo-Finish is capable of running both rotating and large volumes of smaller non-rotating parts in dry spindle finish applications.

• (1) Dry operation. Turbo-Finish produces both smoothing and polished surface effects with an entirely dry operation. No wet waste is generated.

• (2) Horizontal Spindle Operation. Unlike other spindle finish methods, the Turbo-Finish method utilizes horizontal spindles, accommodating several parts or part fixtures on the same spindle or on multiple processing spindles.

• (3) Rapid edge and surface finish development. Unlike other spindle-finish methods, spindle rotating speeds in the hundreds and even thousands rpm are possible because of Turbo-Finish’s unique media delivery system.

• (4) Economical Tooling and Media. Much of the work-holding tooling can be made from various plastic materials and still maintain extended service life.

Industry Segment Examples• INDUSTRIES:

• Aerospace Industry

• turbine and compressor discs

• turbine blades

• turbine impellers

• turbine blisks

• gears for wind power turbines

• (up to 40” in diameter)

• Cutting tools

• taps

• drills

• hobs

• milling cutters

Power generation Industry

Turbine discs

(up to 46” in diameter)

Automobile industry

automotive transmission

gears

clutch plates

Other applications

boat or ship propellers

medical parts, i.e. bone screws

jewelry parts

MATERIALS:

Carbon Steel

Stainless Steel

Bronze

Aluminum

Titanium

Waspalloy

Inconel

Nickel Alloys

Ceramic Composites

TAM BASICS

• Fluidized bed technology develops complete envelopment of parts with free abrasive media

• Rotational movement of parts produces high intensity abrasive particle contact with part edges and surfaces to develop edge contour and surface finish

• Relatively small media and high speed rotation promote processing of intricate or complex geometries and even simple interior channels

• A wide variety of abrasive and polishing media can be utilized from heavy abrasives to polishing media for developing low micro-inch surfaces

SIGNIFICANT PROCESS CHARACTERISTICS

• Rapid machine cycles replace tedious manual processes

• Intricate part geometries accessed (small media – high intensity rolling or glancing contact)

• Completely DRY abrasive, polishing or non- abrasive operation, NO WET WASTE DISPOSAL

• Micro-textured surfaces are excellent substrate for coatings

• Metal surface improvement, compressive stress effects, enhanced metal fatigue resistance

• No part-on-part contact or impingement

Significant Process Characteristics

• HORIZONTAL SPINDLE OPERATION

• Multiple parts can be fixtured on a single spindle

• Unique abrasive delivery system (fluidized bed) assures uniform processing of all parts on the spindle

• The abrasive fluidized bed permits high-speed rotational operation. Speeds of 800- 2000 rpm are commonly specified

• The takt time (floor-to-floor) for running these disks was calculated to be 60 seconds

Small diameter complex parts

• Smaller diameter parts can also be run in multiple spindle equipment

• These rotor parts were run in a dry abrasive process in an eight spindle machine

• Takt time per part (floor to floor) was less than sixty seconds

Dry Abrasive and Polishing Media Materials• Abrasive Material such as Aluminum Oxide,

Zirconium Oxide

• Polishing and Micro-Finishing media such as soft granulates to develop lower micro-inch surfaces and develop refined reflective surfaces to assist visual inspection

• Surface roughness pattern orientation to vector

• Abrasive particle size can vary

• Abrasive composition can vary

• Multiple processes on the same part can used successively finer abrasive materials to achieve very fine edge and surface finishes when required

Micro-Finishing

• Secondary operations include processing with dry polishing media to produce refined surfaces to better facilitate visual inspection

Dry Micro-Finishing

• [Ra = 11.8 micro-inch]

• Surface and edge finish effects can be further improved when multiple turbo-abrasive machining steps utilizing sequentially finer abrasive materials.

• This disc photo and graph shows surfaces after two sequentialTAM cycles.

Extreme Deburring and Finishing

• Difficult Burr, Edge and Surface Conditions Addressed

• Difficult Geometries Accessed

BEFORE

ExtremeDeburringand Finishing

• Difficult Burr, Edge and Surface Conditions Addressed

• Difficult Geometries Accessed

AFTER

Extreme Deburring and Isotropic Surface Finishing

• Sharp edge features with significant burr condition

• Non-isotropic surfacefinish with Gaussianpositively skewedsurface

• Crack propagation points?

Before

Extreme Deburring and Isotropic Surface Finishing

• Sharp edged features and burrs removed

• Non-isotropic surface finish with Gaussian positively skewed machined or ground surface replaced with isotropic surface finish with neutral surface profile skews

• Automated dry machine cycle

AFTER

Turbo-Finish Case Study – BEFORE

Rapid Automated Aerospace Component Deburring

• Photo shows disk segment prior to processing with Turbo-Finish

• Note heavy burr condition in the slot edges

• Note also machining marks on features

After Turbo-Finish Processing

• MACHINE: Turbo-Finish Model TF-500

• Cycle Time: Six Minutes

• Finishing Media: 36 Mesh Dry Abrasive Grain

• Horizontal Spindle Rotation

• Fluidized bed media delivery

Turbo-Finish Part OperationsBefore TAM

• Compressor Disks

• Note: machined or ground surfaces prior to high-speed dry finishing

• Note: Burr condition and sharp edged features

Turbo-Finish Part Operations

After TAM Processing

• Compressor Disks

• Note: machined or ground surfaces now replaced by isotropic surfaces

• Note: Burr condition and sharp edged features have been replaced with consistent and uniform edge-contour

Dry, High-Speed Gear Deburring

• Prior to TAM processing,

• Burrs

• Sharp edge condition

• Non-isotropic surfacecondition

Dry High-Speed Gear Deburring

• After TAM processing

• Burrs Removed

• Sharp edge condition replaced with contour

• Manual deburringeliminated

• Reject/rework rates reduced close to zero

• Isotropic surface development

Automated Disk Finishing

• Several advantages when compared with other mechanical finishing technologies

• Automation and mechanization of deburring for complex rotating parts. Edge contour, surface-finishing improvement and compressive stresses developed on parts SIMULTANEOUSLY

• Manual process consuming many hours are reduced to automated machining cycles of only a few minutes

• High flow of dry abrasive particles allows penetration of an abrasive action on many difficult to access part areas

• Low energy consumption (unlike blasting, peening or other pressure or impact processes)

• Low consumable cost. The current track record indicates that abrasive costs per disk are approximately $0.15 per disk for 10 inch disks, and $0.50 for 20 inch disks

TAM Features and Benefits• The TF technology, in addition to producing a good radius

on the feature can create an isotropic surface effect. The isotropic surface effect minimizes potential crack propagation points and improves stress equilibrium among part features. All common machining and manual finishing methods produce non isotropic but linear characteristics. This contributes to tension concentration of the sharp surface peaks and easier crack propagation

• The microimpact of abrasive small particles and a high velocity of the part produce beneficial compressive stresses and also improve the surface integrity and fatigue resistance of many types of critical components

• As TF is a cold process, it causes no structural phase transformation on the surface. The TF technology increases the service life from 30% to 100%, depending of the part material (nickel alloy, stainless steel, titanium

Turbo-Finish Process Development Laboratories

• Process Development

• Process Engineering

• Sample Processing

• Beta-Testing

• 917.518.8205

• michael@turbofinish.com