Finish on a high note

Family-run PDJ Vibro, a leading provider of vibratory bowls, troughs, associated consumables, technical consultancy and subcontract finishing, will focus on the depth of experience and expertise it offers to customers at MACH.

Now in its second generation and run by managing and technical directors David and Paul Hurley respectively, the company was established in 1983 by their father John, the current chairman.

With an eye to succession, passing this knowledge down to David's son Tom and Paul's two sons, James and Adam, and acclimatising them to the world of manufacturing will form an important part of the event. All three third-generation family members will be in attendance during this year's show, Tom having made his MACH debut in 2014.

Another theme of the stand will be to communicate the advantages of eliminating hand finishing, namely reduced labour costs and scrap, less reworking and increased consistency of finish compared with processing parts by hand. Interested parties are invited to visit www.vibratoryfinishing.co.uk/cost-calculator.html to find out how much this repetitive and unpopular job is actually costing them.

Two further topics will be highlighted. One is PDJ Vibro's ability to deliver competitively priced, high quality equipment quickly ex-stock from the company’s Bletchley showroom and technical centre, together with the requisite consumables. The company also provides a machine replacement service if the customer's original choice of bowl or trough was not optimal or their requirements change.

The other area of focus will be the vast range of components that can be efficiently and safely processed using the vibratory process. Anything from rusty old chains to parts machined to extremely tight tolerances are suitable candidates for vibro finishing. As the latter may not be generally appreciated, a number of case studies will be cited where PDJ Vibro equipment is being used to automate the finishing of very high precision components, without surface damage or dimensional change.

In one illustration, PDJ points to an application at the Poole factory of Westwind Air Bearings, where automatic deburring in a pair of PDJ Vibro bowls has successfully taken over from hand finishing of precision-machined housings. This is despite the components being CNC turned from mild steel bar to within 5µm dimensional accuracy and Ra 0.4µm surface roughness.

High levels of application engineering and technical support were needed to ensure that batches of up to 400 housings could be vibro-finished without compromising the fine tolerances. As a consequence, Westwind has been able to save a lot of time and money and reduce work-in-progress. In addition, uniformity of finish is better using the automated procedure.

Westwind Air Bearings' team leader Martin Graham

John Bradley, senior manufacturing engineer at Westwind commented: “Overall there has been a 7.5-fold saving in labour cost and a 60% reduction in lead-time by changing from hand to vibro finishing. The apparent incongruity of machining parts to within microns and then mass finishing them without damage in a vibratory bowl made us nervous, but PDJ Vibro made it work well.”

At PDJ Vibro's technical centre and demonstration facility in Bletchley, visitors can see 120 new and used machines for immediate delivery, with part-exchange offered in most cases.

The company’s main, high-end vibratory bowl range has process chamber sizes from 7.5 to 6,000 litres, while three competitively priced, entry-level models have capacities of 300, 150 and 75 litres. Rectangular troughs in 13 sizes with capacities from 22 to 2,200 litres are the preferred choice for finishing larger prismatic items and those made from sheet metal.

Over 6,000 varieties of consumable including ceramic and porcelain media, superfinishing compounds, liquid detergents and chemicals are also available, 100 tonnes of which are held in stock.

PDJ Vibro’s problem solving goes further than just advice on the best choice of vibratory equipment for everything from deburring, edge breaking, radiusing, superfinishing, degreasing, rinsing and drying to pre-treatment for anodising, chemical blacking or painting.

Nine out of 10 people bring in sample components to be finished on a free trial basis so they can see the process in action and its effectiveness. Many parameters are taken into account, including the number of parts to be finished per batch, frequency of production, drainage and noise issues, the size of components and how vulnerable they are to impingement damage.

Another strand of PDJ Vibro’s service designed to make life easier for customers is the 24/7 subcontract vibratory finishing and polishing service in a unit adjacent to the company’s showroom.

PDJ Vibro www.pdjvibro.co.uk Stands: H20-48/50 www.bit.ly/MACH2018

 

 

 

 

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MACH Exhibition

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