Manufacturing more than 1,500 motorcycle disc brake rotors per week, Northampton-based EBC Brakes is always looking for productivity gains. One such gain brought with it an additional requirement for deburring.
The switch from machining the disc rotors to using laser to create the complex shapes and patterns that are both practical and functional on modern motorcycle brakes, created a product that had burrs and sharp edges. While having no effect on the performance of the brakes, these burrs had to be removed for the health and safety of customers and for aesthetic reasons. Initially this deburring was being done manually in between other operations, which in itself posed a risk of injury in the handling of the discs and was also fatiguing and time consuming.
“It did not take us long to realise we needed to find an alternative to hand deburring that would provide the quality of finish and an automated solution to drastically reduce the time taken to deburr these rotors,” says Paul Britchford, EBC’s production manager.
Ellesco was confident its Timesavers 42 series would handle both the volumes and the application. The machines have a combination of abrasive belt deburring and rotary disc pad; linishing and deburring built into the same machine. This provides the ability to remove heavy burrs and/or linish the component using the belt, then breaking the edges, smoothing the surface and deburring using the rotary pad, or combining both in the same operation. With table widths of up to 1,350mm wide, large volumes of parts can be fed through the machine at any one time.
For further reassurance that the machine was capable of meeting EBC’s requirements, a consignment of brake discs was shipped to Timesavers in The Netherlands. These trials proved to be a resounding success, with Paul Britchford remarking of the Timesavers machine: “It did exactly what it said on the tin. Once we saw the quality of the parts that were being produced the decision to purchase was a no brainer. You can put a part through the Timesavers machine and it will deburr and apply a small radius to every edge of the component in a single pass. At the same time it leaves the flat surfaces of the discs with a lightly brushed finish, which makes them look better than we were achieving before.”
The key feature of the machine for EBC is the large diameter rotary nylon web pad that has abrasive material embedded in its fibres allowing it to act like a giant polishing mop. The gentle action of this disc rounds off the sharp edges without damaging the surfaces. The lack of pressure on the disc eliminates any possibility of them becoming distorted and having to be ‘flattened’ prior to dispatch.
In the first three months since the machine was installed they have not had to replace the rotary disc and only one abrasive belt has been used.
