Tumbling Creates The Most Wanted Finish On Parts

Tumbling media is any material that is used for modifying or shifting the look of a part – that is cleaning, polishing, smoothing parts and separating parts. Tumbling media are coarse in nature. Tumbling compounds are compounds that are used in the tumbling process as aids.

The tumbling media is also identified as finishing media as it is used to offer the final touches to parts. The parts to be polished or cleaned or separated are put into tumbling or vibratory machines along with the tumbling media. When the equipment start to run, the tumbling media and the parts rub adjacent to each other which supply an abrasive accomplishment. This act in turn gives the smoothing and polishing outcome. There are two types of tumbling media – natural and artificial. Natural tumbling media include corn cob media and walnut shells media. Corn cob grit is used as tumbling media as it has effective abrasive and cleaning properties. Walnut shells are also powdered to different grit sizes and are used in cleaning and polishing. The advantage of tumbling media is that they are bio degradable and hence are environment friendly. They are also tough and cost effective. They are typically used in tumbling processes where soft abrasive property is needed.

Artificial tumbling media includes plastic finishing media and ceramic media. Both come in preformed shapes and sizes. Depending on the requirement, the right material, shapes and sizes can be chosen. Plastic tumbling media is found to be ideal for metal removal, pre plated finishing, fast and heavy cutting. It is used successfully on metals like brass and aluminium which are soft metals. They are also ideally suited for use on stringy materials because they avert burrs rolling over into holes. Plastic media are first-rate for providing very smooth finishes without much shine. Ceramic tumbling media is suited for light as well as heavy deburring and in aggressive removing of hard metals. Ceramic media come in extremely small sizes and they work better than plastic media on heavy parts.

Tumbling compounds are practical in improving the effectiveness of tumbling media as they prevent glazing over. They also offer additional abrasiveness and help to uphold the metal colour of the parts being tumbled. They also help in imparting an anti rusting and anti corrosive properties to the parts apart from giving shiny and bright finish. They are very helpful while cleaning of parts – in de-scaling and heavy grease removal. They offer a medium that ensures that the cleaned grime does not get re-deposited on the parts. They also support in the deburring method and separating of parts. Tumbling compounds are also good for using with delicate parts as they act as good cushions.

Tumbling compounds might be dry or wet or creamy. They can be ph-balanced, acidic or alkaline in nature depending on the function they are projected to serve in the finishing process. The flow rate of the tumbling compounds has to be maintained in proportion to the volume of the tumbling media used in order to achieve optimum fin