Nitrofreeze® cryogenic deburring provides manufacturers and machine shops with a better way to remove burrs from small plastic parts. Burrs, a type of manufacturing defect, are raised areas on the surfaces of parts produced with milling, turning, or machining operations. Although some CNC equipment can remove burrs in-line, deburring is usually performed off-line for small plastic parts like gears, valves, and connectors. That slows production while adding costs and introducing risks.

Manual Deburring is Slow, Expensive, and Risky

Manufacturers and machine shops can remove burrs by hand, but manual deburring is slow, expensive, and risky. A worker with a hand tool can deburr only one part at a time, and it’s challenging to work with small components, especially those that have blind holes, through holes, or complex geometries. It’s hard to access features like these with hand tools, but it’s very easy to remove too much or too little material. It’s also difficult to achieve part-to-part consistency.

Plus, hand deburring can be expensive. At a time when good workers are hard to find, skilled labor is at a premium. Manual burr removal adds direct labor that increases the cost of machined parts, and there’s a risk of waste and rework if hand deburring changes a part’s tolerances or surface finish. For medical and aerospace customers especially, tight tolerances and proper finishes are required. Techniques that risk part rejects can compromise a project’s profitability.

Nitrofreeze® Cryogenic Deburring is Quick, Consistent, and Cost-Effective

Nitrofreeze® cryogenic deburring uses low temperatures and a cryogenic-grade polycarbonate media to remove burrs from batches of small plastic parts. This automated, computer-controlled process can deburr tens or hundreds of parts at the same time, and with the kind of part-to-part consistency that manually deburring can’t match. Plus, Nitrofreeze® can use the same deburring process for future batches of your same part.

The process begins when an operator puts your machined plastic parts inside a basket that’s loaded into our cryogenic deburring machine. Your parts are then cooled below their glass transition temperature so that the burrs become brittle and easy to remove. Next, your parts are impacted by polycarbonate media that’s sized for the job and your parts’ specific features. Hairy, stringy, roll-over, flap, cross-hole, and intersecting burrs can all be removed cleanly and neatly.

Part Sizes, Critical Tolerances, and Surface Finishes

Nitrofreeze® cryogenic deburring can accommodate thin-walled parts as small as 0.025” and larger, inch-based parts with greater mass. Importantly, our patented process removes only the surface imperfections and will not affect critical tolerances or surface finishes. Edges are maintained without rounding, and the non-abrasive media that we use won’t leave residues behind. That’s important for medical devices, but also for other applications.

Machined Plastics and Small Parts Deburring

Nitrofreeze® cryogenic deburring can remove burrs from these plastic materials.

Do you machine high volumes of small plastic parts? Do you need to remove burrs flash from cross holes, blind holes, or other hard-to-reach part features? Ask the deburring experts at Nitrofreeze® to review your requirements. If your machined plastic part is a viable candidate for our process, we can perform sampling and share the results with you.

The consultation is free of charge, so contact us at the phone number and email below to get started.

(508) 459-7447 x 105 | info@nitrofreeze.com