Applications: Deburring machinery improves quality, speed in flame-cut part production

An automated deburring and edge-rounding machine has helped a German company to greatly reduce labor costs once associated with manual grinding.

Situation

Eisen- und Stahlhandel Straub GmbH, a family-owned company based in Lichtenau, Germany, processes more than 4,000 tons of steel per month. The core business is cutting and bending concrete reinforcement steel and cutting, drilling, and sandblasting steel profiles. The company also sells construction steel, girders, panels, and pipes.

At a second, nearby plant, the firm manufactures flame-cut and welded parts up to 7.87 in. thick using high-precision autogenous gas and plasma technology. The task of deburring of these parts required four employees to manually remove the nearly half-inch-thick burrs with angle grinders. Over the course of the year, the task required up to 20 hand grinders and the corresponding grinding discs, costing the company several thousand dollars a year.

In mid-2014, leveling technology provider ARKU was about to begin offering deburring machinery to the marketplace. The company, based in Baden-Baden, Germany, started searching for flame-cut and welded parts from metalworking companies in the area to use in endurance tests on its newly developed EdgeBreaker® series machines, and that search brought ARKU to Eisen- und Stahlhandel Straub.

"When ARKU inquired about sample parts for its testing, we promptly agreed,” explained Simon Straub, production supervisor.

"Our customers always want two things: parts of consistently high quality, and these parts as quickly as possible,” he explained. Jobs often arrive on short notice and encompass a variety of parts. And customers want them back, cleanly cut and rounded, in three to four days. "We were looking for a solution which would enable us to react quickly and flexibly in order to fulfill these requirements.”

Resolution

After the endurance test in November 2014, the flame-cut parts were returned to one of the two production centers, cleanly deburred and rounded. By December, the family-owned company acquired an EdgeBreaker 4000, which processes panel thicknesses from 0.03 to 3.15 in., and the machine was commissioned in early 2015.

"The entire installation process went smoothly,” remembered Straub. "The [machine] was connected the same day it was delivered. The experts also immediately carried out the fine adjustments on the grinding tools.”

The deburring machine is equipped with an oscillating drum that gives the flame-cut parts a very even surface. The oscillation also removes sanding residue from the sanding belt. The vibration-free drive system imparts precision to the transverse belt with the grinding blocks for rounding the edges on both sides.

When grinding blocks and grinding materials do become worn, they can be removed and attached easily to enable quick replacement. The abrasive belt also can be replaced in a few minutes by one employee.

“In comparison to our previous machine, [this machine] provides savings of roughly 40 percent in terms of tool wear. Thanks to its automatic calibration, it not only provides constantly high-quality parts, but even and slower wear of the grinding media as well,” Straub explained.

The machine has improved quality of the flame-cut parts while saving the company a lot of time. "Where our people needed three days for 1,000 parts, the [new machine] only needs one day and one employee,” Straub noted. “This frees up three employees for other tasks at the plant.”