Burrs are unwanted projections that occur on the surface of a manufactured piece.

There is a wide range of deburring machinery used in the industry.

Barrel and vibratory tumblers are used for deburring large numbers of parts.

Rough brushes and grinders can be used to deburr one surface side at a time in large quantities on a conveyer belt system.

For parts that already have a finish on them, mass styles of deburring are not used as the finish would be removed along with the burr. So items like sandpaper, files and hand grinders can be used to remove isolated burrs independently, this is usually done by hand.
 
Burrs are often not acceptable usually for safety reasons.

These include dangers that could happen from simply handling a part with a burr.

Another is the potential damage of other materials that would come into contact with a burred surface.

A piece of ductwork with a burr could easily cut into insulation or damage close electrical work.

Types

•   Barrel finishing is a process that produces a low-pressure abrasion action by tumbling work pieces in a hexagonal or octagonal barrel together with an abrasive media.
•   Centrifugal Disc machines are essentially barrel machines and the name describes the spinning disc at the bottom of the machine that spins the part and abrasive media together.
•   Polishing equipment is used in many types of deburring. Examples range from the barrel or vibratory tumbler as well as non-enclosed options like Nylon Abrasive Filament (NAF) brushes or standard hand held sandpapers and filers.
•   Sand blasting equipment is a type of deburring machinery which produces a desired effect. Rather than the metal part being immersed in polishing media, as in the case of vibratory or barrel tumblers, the part surface is blasted from the outside by the appropriate media which is often small ceramic pieces or even walnut shells in the case of softer plastic parts.
•   Vibratory finishing is the burr removal process in which an appropriate number of parts, depending on part size and abrasive material, is accelerated and decelerated by mechanical means inside of a drum-like enclosure.
•   Vibratory Tumblers are one type of deburring machinery. Often similar in shape and technology as the barrel machines, but are open at the top allowing the ability to view the progress of the deburring without stopping the machine.

Deburring Machinery Terms

Abrasive Technically any material that can be used to graze another material.In industry however, abrasives are raw materials from a select group of very hard raw materials used to shape, finish, and polish or deburr another material.
 
Buffing Polishing method using a soft cloth and very fine polishing compounds.
 
Burr unwanted projections and metal edges that result from machining operations.
 
Coated Abrasive (sandpaper). This is used on machines such as disc sanders and is often used by hand.Often a synthetic mineral is coated on the paper or fiber rather than actual sand.
 
Crystalline The texture of groups of minerals is said to be crystalline when distinct crystal faces are present.
 
Disc Grinding Refers to grinding machines and a process using the face of a large wheel to produce flat and parallel surfaces in high volume production.
 
Edge The junction of two surfaces.
 
Finish A measurement of surface characteristics of a work piece.
 
Friability A characteristic of rough grains that describes their tendency to crack or break apart then hit or placed under pressure.
 
Emery A natural abrasive that contains aluminum oxide and small amounts of iron oxide.Once used extensively in the finishing industry, it is used today mostly in home workshops for deburring by hand.
 
Mass Finishing A group of processes that use abrasives to remove burrs or apply a finish to small work pieces.
 
Media The rough pellets, stones or other materials used in mass finishing and deburring. Examples are silicon carbide, ice, plastic, sand and walnut shells.
 
Polishing A process using very fine rough minerals for little or no material removal.The step of finishing that often comes just after deburring when needed.Surface appearance is the primary purpose of polishing.
 
Silicon Carbide This synthetic mineral is one of the abrasives used extensively in the finishing industry.It his harder than aluminum oxides.