Thermal deburring reduces faulty parts to 1 in 10

A flowmeter manufacturer had the problem that a componet could only be tested after assembly - with 80% rejection rates - until thermal deburring reduced rejection rates to under 10%.

High quality flowmeter manufacturer, LitreMeter, Alyesbury, UK, has a reputation for producing devices that withstand harshest conditions found in sub-sea or the most precise found in the laboratory.

The company performs continual inspection and testing during flowmeter manufacture at every production operation.

An irritating problem was a grub screw with a 0.5mm hole that focuses a jet onto a paddle wheel.

The component could only be suitably tested after assembly and 80% were being rejected, owing to burrs that were impeding the jet flow characteristics.

It remained a problem until LitreMeter tried thermal deburring.

The Deburring Centre told manufacturingtalk that thermal deburring is not widely known in the UK, even though it has been around for over 40 years.

It is well known in the deburring of mass produced parts for the die-cast and hydraulic industries, but is now being more widely used.

The Deburring Centre said that thermal deburring is novel as it uses a gas as the energy source.

The process can guarantee that every burr and loose part is surrounded and removed - no matter how small or awkward the burr is to get to.

Using thermal deburring deburring, the LitreMeter' grub screw jet's fine hole was cleared of burrs and its failure rate reduced dramatically from 8 in 10 to less than 1 in 10.

Design engineer at LitreMeter, Tom Stafford, said: "We are so pleased we made the effort to search for independent help over deburring".

"The Deburring Centre responded quickly, did free trials, and worked with us to solve the problem".

"We are now looking at other applications thermal deburring can benefit".

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