Special Surface Finishing Solutions for Foundries
Top Finishing results for many Applications

The metal casting industry utilizes numerous different technologies to manufacture a multitude of parts in a cost effective manner. New alloys and constantly refined casting methods offer new applications for castings. The raw castings frequently require a finishing step, such as deburring and radiusing (edge breaking). Another important finishing step is the general cleaning of castings including the removal of mold release agents as preparation of the casting surface for applying a glue. Other finishing functions are paint preparation and generating a "pre-plate" finish. Light alloy metals, non-ferrous metals, grey iron, steel and stainless steel castings frequently must undergo a surface finishing process. 

Fast deburring with subsequent edge breaking
Aluminium, magnesium and zinc diecastings are usually finished in continuous vibratory systems. The removal of flash and a light breaking of sharp edges can already be achieved with a processing time of 5 - 8 minutes. A welcome "side effect"  of the vibratory finishing process is a homogeneous surface appearance and the removal of mold release agents. Likewise, residual burs caused by the mold release tools can be removed, provided they can be reached by the grinding media. Continuous vibratory systems are available as linear or circular - long radius or multi channel - systems. While linear systems allow the finishing of parts with dimensions of up to 800 mm, circular systems  are ideal for parts not bigger than 350 mm. The finishing systems can easily be linked with the actual die cast and stamping cells allowing a fully automatic and highly cost effective finishing process.

Recycling of the process liquid
Mass Finishing requires the use of water and compounds. For this reason - besides deburring and radiusing - it also offers a washing/cleaning effect. Sophisticated recycling systems allow the re-use of the water/compound mix, thus reducing the water and compound consumption to a minimum. This saves the user considerable cost for water and compound. And, last but not least, it helps to keep our environment clean!

Different surface finishing technologies
Deburring, edge breaking and edge radiusing with usually relatively short processing times represent only a small part of the overall range of mass finishing technologies. Other applications are the smoothing and polishing of parts like knee and hip implants, bath room fixtures made from brass and stainless steel, or handles for doors and windows. Frequently, in such cases the mass finishing process is preceded by a belt grinding operation. The subsequent mass finishing process can achieve mirror image polished surfaces with Rz values of less than 0.2 µm. Depending on geometry, size and surface condition of the parts different finishing machines like circular or tub vibrators, high energy centrifugal disk systems and  drag or plunge finishers are utilized. Depending on the parts size and machine type hundreds or even thousands of parts can be processed simultaneously. This reduces idle times for material handling such as parts loading and unloading to an absolute minimum.

How to mass finish large components?
Mass Finishing is not limited to the processing of small parts. It can also be utilized,  for  example, for surface finishing of engine casings for aircraft turbines and structural airframe parts with a length of up to 6,000 mm. Even today many parts are still manually deburred after a machining process. This requires highly skilled and dedicated personnel to prevent damage of the usually high cost components. The Rösler surface finishing technologies offer 100% repeatable, high quality solutions which can be tailormade for every conceivable finishing application. For bigger parts, large tub and circular vibratory systems are usually utilized. To prevent part-on-part impingement the vibrators can be segmented into individual chambers with each chamber containing one single part. Of course, for special applications Rösler also offers special equipment. One example of this special equipment is the centerless circular vibrator which allows the deburring and surface finishing of round components with a diameter of up to 2,000 mm. Typical examples of round components are large gears,  blisks for turbines and large impellers for pumps.

Special surface finishing solutions required?
Mass finishing technologies offer surface finishing solutions for any modern foundry operation. Rösler can assist in developing such solutions in one of its test and development centers. Please contact your nearest Rösler representative or sales branch to schedule processing trials.