Laser Cut Steel Parts

When steel parts are laser cut, heavy slag can develop on the part. These burrs are typically much thicker and heavier than a normal burr or sharp edge and can sometimes be a large a 1/8" thick. Removing this excess metal requires an extremely aggressive operation. For this piece, part-on-part barrel tumbling was required to knock off the extraneous material.


To keep the cycle time to a minimum (less than 8 hours in this case), a hard abrasive grit, Silicon Carbide, was added to increase the deburring properties as well 'even out' the surface finish. After tumbling the part showed no burrs or slag on the edges and had a uniform, matte finish.

After this ultra-aggressive deburring step, the parts can then be tumbled (barrel or vibratory) to improve the surface finish for further processing.