Tumbling Provides The Desired Finish On Parts

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

The tumbling media is also known as finishing media as it is used to provide the finishing 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 next to each other which provide an abrasive action. This action in turn gives the smoothing and polishing effect. 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 therefore are environment friendly. They are also robust and cost effective. They are characteristically used in tumbling processes where soft abrasive property is needed.

Artificial tumbling media includes plastic finishing media and ceramic media. Mutually come in preformed shapes and sizes. Depending on the necessity, the right material, shapes and sizes can be selected. Plastic tumbling media is establish to be ultimate for metal removal, pre plated finishing, fast and heavy cutting. It is used efficiently 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 superior 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 incredibly small sizes and they work better than plastic media on heavy parts.

Tumbling compounds are valuable in improving the effectiveness of tumbling media as they inhibit glazing over. They also supply additional abrasiveness and assist to sustain 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 useful while cleaning of parts – in de-scaling and heavy grease removal. They provide a medium that ensures that the cleaned grime does not get re-deposited on the parts. They also aid in the deburring process and separating of parts. Tumbling compounds are also good for using with delicate parts as they act as good cushions.

Tumbling compounds could be dry or wet or creamy. They could be ph-balanced, acidic or alkaline in nature depending on the purpose they are anticipated to serve in the finishing method. The flow rate of the tumbling compounds has to be maintained in proportion to the quantity of the tumbling media used in order to attain optimum fin