10.10 MEDIA SHAPE EFFECTS

Chapter 6 describes many aspects of media, but one aspect specifically related to vibratory operations is the impact of media shape on finishing. Figure 10-43 shows the change in surface roughness when cutting with media of similar hardness but different shapes on aluminum alloy AlCuMgPb (Przyklenk & Schlatter 1987). The flat part shape used is shown in the figure, as are the media shapes. Figure 10-44 shows similar data for the percent of material on the part that was abraded away after 6 hours. Figure 10-45 shows the impact of shape on part edges. Several figures in Chapter 6 also show the impact of correct media shape and size.

Figure 10-43: Change in surface roughness during vibratory finishing with media of different shapes, but similar hardness (Copyright Aluminum-Verlag, Marketing & Kommunikation GmbH) (Przyklenk & Schlatter 1987)

Figure 10-44: Percentage of part material abraded away using media of different shapes, but similar hardness after 6 hours (Copyright Aluminum-Verlag, Marketing & Kommunikation GmbH) (Przyklenk & Schlatter 1987)

Figure 10-45: Characteristics of various deburring chips (Copyright Aluminum-Verlag, Marketing & Kommunikation GmbH) (Przyklenk & Schlatter 1987)