Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Automatic buffing machines
I see a posting about automatic buffing from over over 6 years ago. I am having a similar problem at my company with buffing and antiquing small copper and brass parts. It is also the bottleneck of our manufacturing process. Workers use a cotton buffing wheel to get the brass or copper piece to shine, chemically antique the part, then use the buffing wheel again to achieve the desired look. This buffing and antiquing process is also the bottleneck of our manufacturing process. Have there been any improvements or innovations with automatic buffing machines? Any other new ideas?
Thank you,
Katie-Lynn Reale- Rutland, Vermont, USA
2003
Actually automatic buffing machines have been around for some time, but they seem to be coming more popular. They are still expensive; therefore, volume needs to be there to justify costs. Actually it is probably cheaper to achieve the same results using mass finishing equipment. If you want more specifics, get in contact with me.
AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
2003
Q. Dear Sir,
I am doing Type II Anodizing which requires Gloss Finish & Matte finishes. I am facing a very serious labor problems especially Buffers. Please let me know if there is any Automatic Buffing machines which can be a permanent solution.
Regards
Anodizer - Nashik, Maharashtra, India
September 19, 2012
A. I am confused. Are you trying to polish and antique after anodizing? In either case, it sounds as if you can use mass finishing in a dry process. Much longer time cycles than hand operations but no labor intensity.
AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
September 20, 2012
September 22, 2012
Thanks Tony. It's usually much more practical to polish the aluminum to a gloss finish before anodizing, rather than after, so I assume that is what Rahul is looking for. Clearly, we will need to know what kind of parts he's talking about before we can determine whether mass finishing is possible.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Q. Dear Sir,
Thanks For Your Reply. Let me clarify my process first. When the material to be anodized come to our factory, and the customer ask us for a Gloss Finish, we buff the material with cotton wheels to get the Gloss finish (Mirror Polish. Then our regular process. And once sealing is done we dry the sections and again buff the sections with green luster to get the polish on the sections. But here the buffing is not intense just once the section is passed through the buffing wheel with lesser pressure applied on sections and then the sections shine extremely good.
The parts to be anodized are various ARCHITECTURAL SECTIONS. (For example, Sliding Window sections, 3 track Top, 3 track Bottom, Handles, Interlock and various Architectural Sections used for Larger Buildings)
And as already told Buffing is the BOTTLE NECK in the entire process. So please help me if we can go for automatic buffing machine. Also please help me to know what is mass finishing equipment as told by Mr. AF Kenton.
With Regards,
- Nashik, Maharashtra, India
September 25, 2012
A. Mass finishing will NOT work in this application. You will need a wide belt sanding system that uses a non-woven belt system. There are a number of manufacturers.
AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
September 28, 2012
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Ed. note: Sorry, that we can't suggest particular manufacturers, Rahul. Time & again it led to a race to the bottom with salespeople trying to out-claim each other, or posting with fictitious names as "satisfied customers". We apologize, but posting brand names has proven to be a mistake; we could probably forward the 500+ spams that we get from China every day though :-)
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