Flexible and economical removal of burrs and rounding of edges with brush deburring tools

Brush deburring is considered one of the most flexible and sometimes most economical methods of mechanical deburring technology. Apart from complex processes and equipment, it offers the possibility of removing burrs, rounding edges and loosening tinsel.

Brush deburring is a purely mechanical surface finishing process. It is suitable for deburring and rounding the edges of workpieces made of steel and iron, non-ferrous, light and sintered metals, and engineering plastics. It can also be used very efficiently for removing tinsel burrs and fettling castings. In industrial practice, brush deburring can be used with hand-held tools and conventional automatic processing machines as well as in fully automated production cells with CNC systems and industrial robots.

Brush deburring relieves the user of the need to invest in expensive, complex plant technology and is considered to be particularly sustainable, as it does not require the addition of chemicals or the supply of thermal energy. The tool brushes required for the process engineering implementation can usually be clamped into existing machines, which considerably simplifies the integration of brush deburring into existing production environments. Since it is also suitable for semi-finished products and batch size 1 components as well as for mass processing, brush deburring is just as attractive for prototype builders, small series and contract manufacturers as it is for large series manufacturers and OEMs.

According to doctrine, brush deburring is one of those mechanical deburring processes in which rotating tools with an "indeterminate cutting edge" exert a targeted effect on the surface of the workpiece. A decisive factor for the performance of brush deburring is therefore the nature of this "cutting edge" - in this case, the brush set. In other words, when selecting the most suitable tool brush for deburring, rounding or fettling, the material, geometry and design of the trim must always be optimally matched to the application.

Leading brush manufacturers such as Kullen-Koti therefore offer their customers a wide range of fill types with abrasive filaments and special wires. They give a deburring brush an abrasive or chipping effect. While the demand-optimized adaptation of abrasive brushes is done via the filament material (SiC, AIO, diamond, ceramic, etc.) and the size of the grit, this is done for wire trimmings via the hardness of the wire material, the diameter (0.06 - 1.2 mm) and the design (crimped, twisted, knotted, etc.).

Brush deburring provides metal and plastics processing companies with a deburring process that can be used for workpiece weights of just a few grams as well as for components weighing several tons. It is also suitable for soft materials as well as for harder materials. However, it is not recommended for very hard materials, and the height of the burrs should not exceed 0.2 mm. Since deburring technology is also rich in varieties and facets, Kullen-Koti offers many different types of brush systems for it: Disc brushes for robot-assisted surface finishing, circular and single-disc brushes for highly efficient cleaning of weld seams, brush and cup brushes for deburring cut-off points, or internal and alpha-honed brushes for processing bores and transverse intersections. Most deburring brushes can be used both in wet and dry operation. No special pre-treatment of the brushes is required. (OM-02/23)