Preliminary to final electroplating, painting or lacquering a vast majority of metal stampings, machinings, forgings or die castings are vibratory finished. Where applicable; vibratory finishing offers an economy of scale to the finishing operation, because it can be used to replace expensive, laboriously-repetitive, traditional hand-deburring or polishing operations. Cost and time efficiency is derived from the mass finishing of hundreds or even thousands of parts simultaneously thereby eliminating the one-on-one inefficiency of hand finishing operations. Vibratory manufactures typically deliver their equipment with amplitude gauges mounted to their sides. By reading these gauges the vibe bowl operator can determine the range of compression and expansion of the vibe bowl's springs and thereby judge, in a somewhat generalized fashion, the relative performance and efficiency expectations of the equipment. More comprehensively designed gauges are also equipped with protractor scales that can additionally be used to determine the rolling angle of the mass within the bowl's operating channel. Taken together these two traditional measurement tools offer some basic knowledge regarding the operational characteristics of a vibratory bowl; however, they in no way, are capable of monitoring one of the most influential bowl operational characteristics, that of mass rolling speed. The distance a part travels per minute of time is proportional to the speed in which it will be finished. The greater the distance traveled per minute, the shorter the processing time that will be required to finish the part. After years of experience in assorted production, vibratory finishing departments nationwide the author realizes that monitoring mass rolling speed is not a common practice. In fact, few operators know how to determine simple rolling motion of the mass, let alone determine the mass' rolling speed. The author will present a description of the proper mass rolling action that should occur in a properly set-up, vibratory bowl. The author will then introduce an easy to perform technique for monitoring mass rolling action. Finally, the author will introduce an easy to perform calculation which can then be used to determine the distance the mass travels per minute of processing time. The techniques presented here can be applied to any bowl, anywhere.
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