Manufacturing is a precise process that requires a great deal of planning, engineering, and technical expertise. The peak of manufacturing success is gained only when manufacturers have a command and control of their manufacturing equipment, processes, and components. Edge quality is looked at as a product of all these processes and components. And anything less than perfect is less than successful.

Edge quality in manufacturing is tied directly to end-result cost, performance, appearance, and safety. There’s no doubt that burrs and sharp edges cause trouble for the manufacturing industry. Whether a manufacturer is turning out pieces and parts for the assembly of washers and dryers or components for the assembly of heavy construction equipment, burrs on gears and sprockets can create a host of problems on the fabrication line or assembly line. In some cases, parts assembly is negatively impacted. In other cases, workers may suffer cuts on their hands and arms. And, from a product perspective, burrs may directly impact finished product performance and appearance. All of these problems can be a significant drain on time, resources, and operating capital.

As stated earlier, burrs and sharp edges can cause numerous problems. Although worker safety and assembly or fabrication are both a great concern for manufacturers, the idea that the build up and prevalence of burrs may create a situation in which a finished consumer product may have sharp or rough edges that cut or scrape is one that could spell short-term trouble for the company. Worse yet, the same conditions along the manufacturing line might also cause a finished piece of safety gear to either fail or underperform when needed. And these are issues that don’t often end well – often haunting the company and stakeholders for long periods of time or causing steep fees, fines, and other unwanted costs.

At the Cleveland Deburring Machine Company (CDMC), we’ve been assisting the manufacturing industry for as long as we’ve been in business. We respect the fact that manufacturing output in America is worth nearly $2 trillion dollars – or about 12% of the gross domestic product for the nation. As such, we’re in the business of helping manufacturers (large and small) with all their deburring needs.

When you consider the cost of cuts on worker hands and arms that drive up healthcare costs and insurance rates, jammed mechanisms that slow production rates, unnecessary wear or moving parts that increases service time and costs, or build up on edges that create materials waste, a deburring solution is a small fraction of the overall manufacturing cost for a piece or part.

The elimination of burrs on gears and sprockets in manufacturing is a vital part of any process design that, ultimately, serves both the human factor and the production factor.