Category Archives: Mass Finishing

Mass Finishing, Medical

Partnership Provides Excellent Finish for Deep-Drawn Medical Components

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Deep-drawn functional components are increasingly being utilized in the production of medical and pharmaceutical products. To meet the strict standards for manufacturing and quality management in the field of surface finishing, Hubert Stüken GmbH & Co. KG has relied on mass finishing solutions and consumables from Rosler for more than 30 years.

Founded in 1931, Hubert Stüken GmbH & Co. KG is a family-owned business with manufacturing operations at five locations in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Its product range includes stamped and bent parts, plastic-coated components, and complex assemblies.

Rosler works with Stüken Medical, the company’s medical business division which focuses on medical and pharmaceutical engineering, to meet the increasing demand for deep-drawn metal components.

Andreas Hellman, Manager of the ISO 13485-certified business division, explained, “Components used in the field of medical and pharmaceutical engineering must meet strict quality standards. The same strict standards apply also to the actual production operations. For this reason, we have pooled the required know-how for the development and production of such precision components at Stüken Medical.”

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Mass Finishing, Shot Blasting

Single-Source Supplier Helps Job Shop Operation Expand into New Markets

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As a supplier of mass finishing and shot blasting equipment as well as consumables and service, Rosler understands the need for multi-faceted operations and the corresponding flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and innovation required to be successful.

B+S Metallbearbeitung GmbH (B+S), a job shop based in Southern Germany, also provides various surface finishing services. Its multi-faceted mass finishing operations include deburring and polishing as well as shot blasting, part cleaning, and packaging.

B+S handles a broad range of work pieces with different shapes, made of different materials, requiring different finishes, and coming from all kinds of industries. To create a streamlined and one-stop supplier, B+S chose to work with Rosler for its surface finishing equipment and consumables.

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Mass Finishing

Interlinked Mass Finishing and Cleaning Systems Half Processing Time

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Because of a positive experience with four continuous flow washing machines operating at its headquarters, VIA Oberflächentechnik (VIA) decided to work with Rosler for a comprehensive mass finishing and cleaning operation.

The resulting interlinked system meets the most demanding cleanliness specifications while achieving significant cycle time reductions and cost savings and providing a high degree of operational flexibility.

The Situation

Headquartered in Lennestadt, Germany, VIA sought an integrated solution for de-oiling, mass finishing, and deep cleaning of stamped and formed parts. 

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Mass Finishing

Mass Finishing Work Piece Handling Series, Part 3 – Maintaining Wear Linings

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Adequate wear linings are an important factor in ensuring work pieces are efficiently handled in a mass finishing machine. Along with the method speed of transfer as well as the media selection and separation, the condition of a machine’s wear lining factors into the quality of process results.

Thick linings assist with work piece handling by providing a cushioning effect, yet thin or damaged wear linings allow unwanted knicks, scratches, and dings.

With more than 80 years of expertise in surface finishing, Rosler can assist with all aspects of your mass finishing process including proactively eliminating potential work piece handling issues.

Observing Machine Conditions

Regularly checking the lining of your work bowl(s) and trough(s) for wear is one way to ensure parts don’t get accidentally damaged during processing. Inspecting linings consistently will help identify repairable issues before permanent damage to the machine occurs.

To effectively finish work pieces, media must be matched to the specific finishing task and the initial state of a work piece.

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Mass Finishing

How to Use a Vibrascope to Measure Vibratory Bowl Amplitude and Frequency

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When it comes to mass finishing, amplitude and frequency require balance and careful consideration. Amplitude is a measure of movement and intensity while frequency refers to the rate of repetition.

The wrong amplitude, for example, can create lackluster finishing results and longer processing times if it is too low. If too high, it can cause unnecessary wear and tear on the machine.

Creating Vibratory Energy

Whether rotary or tub style, mass finishing vibrators always include two key components: a work bowl containing the finishing media and the work pieces.

Firmly attached to this work bowl is a vibratory drive system generating the energy to put the media and work pieces in motion. The work bowl with an attached vibratory drive system sits on a number of coil springs – in some cases on air cushions – which in turn sit on a machine base. The springs, respectively, act as air cushions allowing the work bowl to “free float” up and down within a certain distance.

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Mass Finishing

Hot Air and Media-Based Systems Offer Drying Options for Mass Finishing

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With few exceptions, mass finishing processes require the addition of water and compounds to produce the desired results. That means finished work pieces discharged from the finishing machine are wet.

Since possible corrosion or problems with subsequent manufacturing steps are possible, the finished work pieces must undergo a drying operation. While not as complex as the mass finishing process itself, drying nevertheless requires careful consideration to ensure that the work pieces are completely dry and free of any water or dirt spots.

Rosler has extensive experience developing dryers for a wide range of work pieces and the expertise to assist with process parameters and settings.

Work Piece-Based Machine Settings

Machine settings for speed and temperature must be matched to the work pieces and their surface condition to ensure the lowest possible energy use to complete the task.

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Mass Finishing

Mass Finishing Work Piece Handling Series, Part 2 – Preventing Drop Height Damage

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Ensuring drop heights are not too high when raw work pieces are loaded into and exiting a mass finishing machine is an important consideration.

Rosler has extensive experience developing mass finishing machines as well as material handling accessories to create a productive and efficient surface finishing system and prevent drop height damage. When evaluating drop heights and machine configuration needs, it is recommended that you consult an experienced equipment provider to help review key machine aspects and suggest solutions tailored to your unique needs.

Issues to Avoid

Falling from a loading container into a machine as well as moving from the machine into a post-process collection can cause damage to work pieces in the form of nicking and scratching caused by contact among work pieces as well as with the machine itself. More delicate and/or sharp work pieces, therefore, require extra consideration and evaluation of drop heights than sturdy and rounded components.

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Mass Finishing

Comprehensive Mass Finishing System Provides ‘Shear’ Results for Gardena

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Improved productivity, increased production capacity, better quality, and lower costs—a leading garden tool manufacturer tasked Rosler with developing a new mass finishing system to improve the deburring and polishing of garden shear knives.

Rosler provided a solution in the form of a tailor-made Keramo-Finish® process carried out within a double-batch centrifugal disc finishing machine. Known as the FKS 35.1 A2-So, the system includes fully automatic work piece handling and a two-stage process that deburrs and polishes stamped and laser-cut knives. Work pieces are subsequently dried in an energy-efficient rotary dryer and prepared for the next manufacturing step.

The Situation

For more than 60 years, the Gardena division of Husqvarna Group has developed a variety of gardening products and tools. The company’s broad product range includes innovative systems for irrigation, soil cultivation, and lawn, tree, and shrub care. Gardena products are used in more than 80 countries worldwide.

To ensure easy and simple handling, produce excellent cutting performance, and guarantee long service life, the Gardena’s shear components are produced with state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies. Stamping or laser cutting of the upper and lower knives followed by surface finishing is an important step.

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Mass Finishing

Mass Finishing Work Piece Handling Series, Part 1 – Selecting the Best Work Piece/Media Separation Method

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One of the first considerations in finishing process development is the ability to effectively separate mass finishing media from the work pieces. If separation cannot be achieved, the process will not be viable. Signs of inadequate separation may include the need for too much manual intervention, lodged media causing downstream process issues, failure to meet finishing standards, or even product recalls.

For processes that do not require work pieces to be firmly mounted to fixtures in the machine, components and media loosely tumble in mass finishing processing bowls and troughs to achieve the desired finishing result. While this interaction is encouraged during processing, swift and precise media separation is crucial before work pieces move onto the next process step.

Rosler has more than 80 years of experience designing mass finishing machines and supplying consumables. Our expertise can help develop the best separation method and settings for your unique combination of finishing, work pieces, and media.

Separation Objectives

If not properly removed from work pieces, media carried out of the machine can cause disastrous results in automated, downstream manufacturing operations such as machining, assembly, painting, etc. The manner in which media and work pieces are separated matters as well.

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Mass Finishing

Mass Finishing Machine Settings Series, Part 2 – Determine Imbalance Weight Settings for Consistent Results

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Specific mass finishing applications are developed through processing trials. Once defined, users should not deviate from the determined machine settings unless necessitated by work piece or process changes.

Rosler partners with clients to provide testing in our global Customer Experience Centers to demonstrate our capabilities on a specific work piece and to calibrate machine settings. Determining the exact machine settings requires considering and testing multiple factors.

Vibratory Systems

The most common drive systems in mass finishing are vibratory. This refers to actual finishing machines such as rotary, tub, and linear continuous flow vibrators as well as auxiliary equipment like screening systems, vibratory conveyors, buffers, etc.

In all of these cases, the speed of the vibratory motor or the electric motor driving the imbalance unit(s) may have to be adjusted as well as the setting of the imbalance weights.

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