How much are you paying to deburr plastic or metal parts by hand? Could you save money with Nitrofreeze® cryogenic deburring, a computer-controlled, automated batch process that’s clean, consistent, and cost-effective? Before you break out your calculator, consider the true costs of manual deburring. There’s a basic formula for manual and cryogenic deburring costs, but there are also considerations that are harder to quantify.

Deburring Labor Costs

This is the basic formula for determining how much it costs to deburr a part by hand.

Employee’s Hourly Pay + Benefits / Number of Pieces Deburring per Hour = Labor Cost Per Piece

In Massachusetts, where Nitrofreeze® is located, the average pay is $20/hour. That’s also the nationwide average, according to Zip Recruiter. Estimates for benefits vary, but they’re generally about 32% of an employee’s total compensation at a small business. Let’s keep the math simple, round down the percentage to account for larger companies, and add $5 in benefits for every hour worked.

How many pieces per hour can your employee deburr? Let’s say your parts have tight tolerances and are geometrically complex, such as in the medical device and aerospace industries. Based on our experience, we’ve seen deburring operations take as long as 15 minutes per part. Given these numbers, it would cost $6.25 to deburr a single part.

25 / 4 = $6.25

According to IQS Directory, the deburring cost for a high-precision part is about 30% of its manufacturing cost. In other industries, the deburring cost is usually between 15% to 20% of the manufacturing expense. Regardless of industry, most manufacturers want to pay less than $6.25 to deburr a single component. Yet the $25 that we calculated for your employee’s hourly pay and benefits isn’t even your true cost.

The True Cost of Manual Deburring

To calculate the true cost of manual deburring, consider whether your company ever needs additional personnel. Let’s say you machine a large run of high-precision parts and need to deburr them on a tight timetable. It’s all hands on deck, so managers and experienced machinists also perform deburring duties. If that’s the case, the number to use for hourly pay plus benefits is higher than $25.

There’s also the cost of part inspection to consider. Inspection takes less time than deburring, but it’s still part of your total cost. Plus, there’s a cost for parts that fail inspection and are discarded. Unfortunately, that can happen with hand deburring. Workers have different skill levels, and even a skilled worker who gets tired after hours of deburring isn’t as fast, accurate, consistent, or efficient as at the start of the shift.

Mistakes happen. Workers remove too much or too little material, which results in rework or scrap. Parts with tight tolerances and complex geometries are especially challenging. There may also be an opportunity cost to consider. If you ask a CNC machinist to deburr parts by hand, you’re not just adding labor costs at a higher rate. You’re losing the ability to have that worker perform CNC machining.

Reduce Deburring Costs with Nitrofreeze®

Nitrofreeze® cryogenic deburring is a fast, accurate, consistent, and efficient process that removes burrs from tens to thousands of parts at a time. Your parts are placed in a machine, cooled to cryogenic temperatures so that burrs become brittle, and are then impacted with non-abrasive polycarbonate media. Burrs are removed cleanly, and without affecting critical tolerances or surface finishes.

Importantly, Nitrofreeze® cryogenic deburring is especially effective at removing burrs from blind holes, through holes, and other hard-to-reach part geometries. Nitrofreeze® can also develop low-cost custom fixtures to ensure burr removal from recessed areas. The process works with a variety of plastic and metal materials, and Nitrofreeze® can save your deburring recipe for future use.

If you’re ready to improve your deburring costs while improving part quality, contact us at the phone number and email below. The consultation is free.

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