Finishing and smoothing with metal tumbling: materials and machinery

Several operations can be performed to finish metals, metal tumbling is one of them.

Finishing and smoothing with metal tumbling: materials and machinery of the process

Technically, the purpose of vibratory finishing of metals is to eliminate the residues of previous processing. The residues consist mainly of more or less large burrs, for this reason the procedure is also called metal deburring. The tumbling of metals is therefore a sort of cleaning and polishing of metals carried out in a professional way thanks to the use of special equipment. But cleaning is not the only purpose of metal tumbling. Through this process it is also possible to burnish metals or even dull them. Tecnos, in its headquarters in Cuggiono, in the province of Milan, has been cleaning particular cut parts for more than twenty years.

How does the tumbling

Among the various metalworking operations and more specifically metal carpentry, metal tumbling is perhaps the procedure that has the greatest impact from an aesthetic point of view.

It is in fact a real finishing, which has the important consequence of giving surfaces an extremely uniform appearance.

The Buratto

The machine responsible for this process is the buratto. The structure is nothing more than a large industrial washing machine where the basket is not round but hexagonal so that by rotating it not only makes the inserted pieces roll, but raises them and then makes them fall on the side of the next hexagon.

The walls of the basket are covered with vulcanized rubber that absorbs very well the blows of the falling pieces by making them bounce between them.

This roll of the pieces combined with other small spherical bodies inserted specifically to increase the abrasive effect of the operation, involves the elimination of burrs, sharp edges, calamine and rust, leaving the pieces uniform and shiny, displaying the metal in its natural shine.

This process is widely used on small to medium sized parts where manual cleaning would involve hours of work not achieving the same result.

Machinery

The machines Tecnos has at its disposal are all of the latest generation, and allow to work on cut parts of different sizes.

The work of these cutting-edge machines is also supervised by our team of technicians, who are also responsible for the correct setting of the machines in order to obtain the perfect result, just according to the customer’s needs.