Often, jewelers, car enthusiasts, manufacturers of facing materials face the same question: how to make a beautiful, shiny surface product? Tumbling comes to the rescue. What it is? This is a process in which the solid surface of a part is cleaned and machined.
The essence of the method
Tumbling is a mixture of abrasive material and workpieces in a container. The interaction of components occurs in two ways of movement:
- rotary (rotating);
- vibrating.
Due to friction, solid tumbling bodies clean the surface to the desired gloss or roughness by removing microparticles from it. The process can take from 4 to 80 hours.
The advantage of this method is the ability to process surfaces with a non-standard shape and size. The disadvantages include the impossibility of processing thin-walled parts.
It is worth noting that tumbling is such a process of running in parts that can be done in two ways:
The dry method uses special pastes, powders and abrasive components. With the wet method, working fluid, coagulants, tumbling solutions are added to the drum. Wet tumbling is used, as a rule, before applying various types of coatings: galvanic, enameled and so on.
Where applicable
Answering the question of what a tumbling is, it should be noted that in addition to polishing, it allows you to remove burr, burrs, rust, and scale from parts. Selecting the right abrasive material will give the desired surface roughness and mirror finish. Scopes of application:
- instrument making;
- engineering;
- construction;
- jewelry business.
In addition, tumbling is used for household products (knives, blades, blades), automobile rims, natural materials (stones), and plastic products.
Galtovka minerals is made to give the stones a beautiful appearance, shine, grinding of sharp edges, creating smooth lines, getting rid of plaque and chips. Such products can be further cut or used as talismans, charms. Tumbling is made for stones such as:
- citrine;
- aquamarine;
- amethyst;
- shungite;
- jasper;
- quartz;
- obsidian;
- malachite;
- agate;
- cornelian;
- rhinestone;
- hematite;
- aventurine.
Equipment
For tumbling, special tumbling machines are used, which are standardized by GOST 10548-74. The working surface in cross section is a circle or a prism.
- The simplest type of equipment is a tumbling drum. The rotation is carried out using an electric motor, processing occurs due to free mixing of the abrasive and parts. It is used for simple products, has a low speed and processing efficiency, visual control of the process is not available with this method.
- Vibration equipment - the most common today - is an open bath with an attached vibration actuator, which informs it of oscillatory movements. Abrasive bodies begin to apply microshocks on the surface, removing a thin top layer. This type of equipment allows you to simultaneously process large batches of parts.
- Rotary equipment - is a fixed drum, in the lower part of which there are rotating blades. The disadvantages include the rapid wear of the inner surface of the drum, the inability to process large products. The advantage of this method is the high productivity and quality of the resulting surface.
- Spindle equipment - the part is fixed in the spindle, lowered into a container with abrasive material and begins to rotate. It is possible to carry out slow, unidirectional, or any other specific actions. It is used in high-tech industries: aircraft construction, medical prosthetics.
Tumbling materials
We can say that tumbling is such collisions, sliding and micro-cutting of surfaces of parts with an abrasive filler, in which the final result will depend on the type and material of the grinding bodies. As a tool for stripping use:
- sea pebbles;
- abrasive grain;
- granular abrasive;
- corn macerate;
- walnut shell;
- steel polished spheres;
- ceramic and volcanic abrasive;
- quartz sand;
- limestone;
- wooden bodies.
Phased tumbling is often used when a gradual reduction in the size of abrasive particles occurs. The shape of the grinding bodies can also be different:
- tetrahedron;
- parallelepiped;
- cube;
- ball;
- cylinder;
- cone;
- prism.
Sometimes it can take more time and resources to finish processing than to make a part.