sPINner stories: Deburring Small Slots

Here is an example of an application where the sPINner is being used to deburr small slots (.027”) in the part that were being hand deburred. The sPINner has automated this process. Where the customer was spending several hours deburring these parts, the sPINner runs the entire batch of the parts in 20 minutes.

sPINner Stories: Credit Card Scanner parts

A manufacturer of credit card scanner parts makes small, intricate stampings out of 304 stainless steel. The stamping process left burrs on the bottom of the part. Due to the thickness of the part, about .015”, traditional methods such as tumbling often damaged the part by bending them.

The customer employed 20 full time workers to hand deburr each part. The results were inconsistencies, missed areas and very slow cycle times. At the right is a picture of the part. As you can see, because of the delicateness of this component part, manual deburring would be extremely difficult for even the nimblest of fingers.

During our testing of these parts, the entire production run of these parts was place a container and run through the sPINner for 2 minutes. 

The sPINner does not damage even the most delicate parts, so no parts were lost due to bending. Also, the cycle time of 2 minutes for the entire lot was drastically less that the many days it took with manual methods. Lastly, all the parts were fully deburred as the sPINner does not miss areas. All areas of the part are affected equally. This customer has purchased two sPINners to meet a growing production demand.

What kind of burr can the sPINner magnetic deburring remove?

What kind of burr can the sPINner remove?

We are often asked, “What kind of burr will the sPINner remove?” The standard answer is “a light burr”. This answer leaves a lot of room for interpretation. What is a light burr to some will be a heavy burr to others.

 The rule of “Thumb”:

In order to form an initial evaluation if the sPINner will work on a particular part try the rule of “thumb”. As a general rule, if you can take a fingernail and remove the burr, the part has a good chance of testing well in the sPINner. Burrs heavier than this may tend to roll and flatten, but not be removed during the process. 

A quick lesson on burrs:

To the left is a drawing of a cross-section of a burr on a part. From the drawing you can see some main areas we will be concerned with; the part itself (parent metal), the burr thickness at root, burr thickness, and burr height. 

Light Burrs
A lighter burr can be loosely defined as a burr with a thin thickness at root (B₁). As the amount of material holding the burr to the parent metal increases, a more aggressive deburring action is required to remove the burr. Using this definition it is possible to have burrs that are tall, yet are “lighter” by our definition because the thickness at the root is small. Burrs of this type are good candidates for the sPINner. 

Short Heavy Burrs
An example of short, yet heavy burrs are the ridges created from drilling. When a drill breaks through a part a ridge is pushed up around the hole on the side where the drill breaks through. While this ridge can be short in burr height (H₀), the thickness at burr root is wide. Often this material is more a part of the parent metal than the burr. These burrs will not be good candidates for the sPINner as a very aggressive and abrasive action that has a high stock removal rate is required to remove these burrs.

Brittle Materials
Another factor to weigh in this process is the material itself. More brittle materials will tend to have the burr break away from the part (parent metal) making the sPINner a good option.


Softer Materials
Softer or more malleable material will tend to have the burr roll and flatten. Softer materials need to have a thinner thickness at root to be good candidates for the sPINner.

If you have a question regarding if the sPINner may work in a particular application, please contact Michael Harris or John Swann  Earth-Chain USA at 317-842-8934