Tumbling media in vibratory finishing is for burr removal and surface improvement. If you own a workshop, then you may need tumbling media. Of course, quality wise the best tumbling media is made in the USA, German and Japan. Yet, it is expensive to buy media from these countries.
The good news is that now we are able to reverse engineering tumbling media. This means we are able to produce media of exactly the same performance but much lower cost.
Cost is a real problem as your clients from automotive industries requests to reduce media cost every year. This is because tumbling media is a consumable. However, you have still mixed feelings about using cheaper media because:
The process to approve new media is long and tedious.
Don’t worry, this is how we can help you!
No matter what parts to finish, Reverse Engineering Media can help you reduce costs and give excellent results. Whether it’s for deburring, cleaning, edge rounding or rust removal.
1. Most popular Reverse engineering tumbling media:
Ceramic Tumbling Media
Plastic Tumbling Media
📷made to order ceramic media and plastic media
These are the most used media because:
They are consumables
We are capable to formulate
2. How we media reverse engineering
It all starts with a sample which a customer needs to send to us. A few pieces of media are enough for testing. As soon as we receive the sample, we will take one piece in the ignition testing equipment to burn out the bonding agent within media chips.
📷the process of reverse engineering tumbling media
For plastic media, all content made of polyester is burned out and abrasive is left for investigation. While for ceramic media, ceramic (kaolin, feldspar etc) is burned out and abrasive is left.
📷OEM Tumbling Media ignition-loss tester
Ignition loss testing center (we also call it “oven”)
When we get the abrasives from the “oven”, we analyze in R&D center. In 2-3 days, we receive a report about abrasive mesh size, abrasive type as well as the abrasive ratio.
📷analyze of media element content
The next step is to make a report that will include the cost of making products by raw material and manufacturing process.
3. The 3 most important parameters that determine the media performance
Recipe: we make the precise control of the recipe (including the abrasive, bonding agent, and their ratio)
Wearing rate: we conduct the test in every batch of media, and measure tumbling media weight loss per hour
Cutting rate: we conduct the test for every batch of media, and measure steel or aluminum weight loss per hour
4. Raw Material Control
We own the most important raw material Kaolin so we can keep the best quality control and remain low cost. For polyester raw materials we import from Japan, therefore the quality is guaranteed. We have a very good relationship with all our raw material suppliers.
We have a large and stable quantity of purchase from our suppliers. They arrange a person who only responsible for our material production and make sure the safe quality.
5. Quality Control
5.1 Quality Control in Lab (wearing and cutting)
It is very important to carry out wearing and cutting tests before media delivering to the customer. To compare the wearing and cutting rate with the original media, we take 20 kg “new” tumbling media.
📷media wearing and cutting test
The test in the centrifugal disc finishing machine lasts for 1 hour. After that, we can compare the weight loss of the media and the metal cylinder.
5.2 Quality Control in Production Site (appearance)
There are 3-4 quality inspectors at the production site to check the media size and shape. In addition, dust and dirt are removed before packaging. Therefore, we make sure the products quality meet your standards.
📷Product final inspection before shipment
5.3 Quality Co media wearing and cutting test mplaint
If any customers make quality complaints, we will forward it to our service team. They will report directly to our factory manager. Usually, we will hold a meeting with production, purchasing, and packaging departments in 24 hours, and will respond in 48 hours with feedbacks and solution.
Resource: https://www.inovatecmachinery.com/blog/made-to-order-media/
