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Buffalo Manufacturing has over 50 years of experience in metal finishing. We are true experts when it comes to choosing the right process for your parts. We offer a variety of services to ensure your products achieve their desired effects, whether that is smoothing, polishing, descaling, derusting, or improving life and strength.
Blast Finishing
Blast finishing is an overarching term that describes processes used for finishing, preparation, cleaning, and removal. Blast finishing includes:
Abrasive Blasting
Abrasive blasting is a versatile form of metal finishing. Depending on the type of media used, it can be as gentle or as powerful as you need it to be. This process is done by blasting the selected media with high pressure compressed air onto the surface of a metal part. (Not AS9100 Certified)
Blast Media Offered:
- Aluminum Oxide
- Steel Shot
- Steel Grit
- Ceramic Shot
- Cut Wire
- Baking Soda/Sodium Bicarbonate
- Plastic
- Glass bead
Used For:
- Cleaning & Degreasing
- Rust removal
- Finishing
- Coating removal
- Surface preparation
- Surface treatment
- Paint removal
- Heat treat scale removal
- Restoration of car parts, patio furniture, grates, home radiators
Best Used On:
- Steel
- Aluminum
- Alloys
- Castings
- And More
Wheel Blasting
Wheel Blasting is similar to Abrasive Blasting but uses a wheel to propel a chosen blast media at the surface of a part that needs finishing, preparation, cleaning, or removal. Like Abrasive Blasting, a variety of blast media can be used, but softer mediums tend to work better with Wheel Blasting. Wheel Blasting is done with a very accurate, effective machine, and is a great option for higher volume parts as they operate at a fast rate. (Not AS9100 certified)
Wheel Blast Media Offered:
- Steel Shot (Carbon and Stainless)
- Steel Grit (Carbon and Stainless)
- 4 Different hardness levels available: GS (Standard Hard Grit), GM (Medium Hard Grit), GL (High Hard Grit), and GH (Full Hard Grit)
Used For:
- Cleaning & Degreasing
- Rust removal
- Finishing
- Coating removal
- Surface preparation
- Surface treatment
- Paint removal
- Heat treat scale removal
- Cleaning die casting
- Restoration of car parts, patio furniture, grates, home radiators
Best Used On:
- Steel
- Aluminum
- Alloys
- Castings
- Springs
- Billets
- Bar Stock
- Small heat treated parts
Vapor Blasting/Wet Blasting
Vapor Blasting is a form of Blast Finishing that uses compressed air and water for surface finishing, preparation, cleaning, or removal. Sometimes detergents or a type of material such as aluminum oxide or glass bead can be used as well. (Not AS9100 certified)
Used For:
- Cleaning
- Degreasing
- Rust removal
- Graffiti removal
- Paint removal
- Mold removal
Best Used On:
- Aluminum
- Chrome
- Steel
Thermal Deburring
Thermal Deburring is a great option for consistent burr or flash removal even in the hardest to reach areas. Parts are placed in a chamber that is filled with gas and ignited, essentially burning off or vaporizing the internal burrs. This leaves the pieces smooth without damaging dimensional features or threads. It is important to complete thermal deburring before the parts are used in production, as burrs can negatively affect processes, such as a burr falling off and plugging a hose.
Applications for Thermal Deburring:
- Screw Machine Parts
- Die Castings
- Fuel Injectors
- Valve Bodies
- Transmission Components
- Precision Machined Parts
Shot Peening
When you manufacture a part, you naturally create stressors in the metal. Shot peening is a process to counteract those stressors and improve the lifespan and strength of a part. This is done by forcefully striking the surface of the part with spherical cast steel shot, ceramic bead, glass bead, or conditioned cut wire. These tiny shots act as ball-peen hammers that create a uniformly dimpled surface that is able to better withstand fatigue cracks.
Used For:
-
Improving Lifespan
-
Improving Strength
Best Used On:
- Steel
- Alloys
- Aluminum
- Engineering grade steel and alloys
Certified to AMS-2430, MIL-13165, AS9100D, & NADCAP (expected in January 2021)
Mass Finishing
Mass finishing is the most effective and affordable way to finish a large number of parts at once. The ultimate goal is to finish or prime parts for future finishing. Mass finishing can burnish, clean, polish, brighten, deburr, remove rust from, or harden the surface of parts. Mass finishing consists of vibratory or tumble finishing.
Tumble Finishing:
During tumble finishing, parts are placed in a barrel with media and compounds. The barrel rotates, creating friction among its contents and effectively deburring the part’s surface.
Vibratory Finishing:
With vibratory finishing, parts, media and compounds are placed into a tub or bowl. As the tub or bowl vibrates, friction between parts and media polishes or deburrs the parts all at the same time.
Deburring
Deburring is very much as it sounds; it is the process of removing burrs. Like mass finishing, it is done inside of a bowl or a tub, with water, soap, and rock. Buffalo Manufacturing uses several different types of Deburring, including:
Plastic Deflashing
Precision Hand Deburring
This is done by hand with manual tools, instead of a machine.
Tumble Finishing
High energy deburring. The barrel spins at a high speed, generating a lot of heat.
Ultrasonic Cleaning
Ultrasonic Cleaning is a method of cleaning that uses ultrasound, or high-frequency, high-intensity sound waves to agitate water or another solvent resulting in the cleaning or removal of particles from the item being cleaned. It is gentle yet powerful and efficiently cleans objects with deep holes, cracks, and crevices.
Used For:
- Cleaning/Washing
- Degreasing
- Rust and scale removal
Best Used On:
- Stainless steel
- Aluminum
- Brass
- Titanium