Dry Tumbling Plastic

Tumbling nylon plastic parts to produce a polished finish can be difficult since the tumbling process itself often leads to small scratching, etching and inconsistencies on the surface.

Before

The picture above shows a part that was deflashed using a vibratory tumbling process. While the edges are clean and rounded, the surface finish shows the matte, tumbled finish typical of many abrasive tumbling media. The customer's desired result is a smooth, uniform surface finish.

After

This 'after' picture is the result after (dry process) vibratory tumbling for only two hours with Hardwood Media and Hi-Glos Final Cream. A dry tumbling process with a very mild abrasive cream will simulate a buffing wheel which is often impossible to use with many odd-shaped parts. While a wet process with a polishing media will also produce good results, on soft substrates a 'light' tumble can often generate a very high polish.