Small diameter Flex-Hone® tools are helping CNC machine to reduce cycle times and finishing time

Flex-Hone abrasive tools from Brush Research Manufacturing provides fine surface finishes on CNC machined parts. The abrasive tools are inserted into the toolholder and programmed with a simple toolpath to process internal bores, along with edge breaking of undercuts and deburring of intersecting drilled holes.

To produce tight tolerance parts at a faster rate and remain profitable in a highly competitive market, machine shops constantly look for creative ways to improve on overall cycle time, including speeding metal finishing operations. Although machine shops may have some auxiliary finishing equipment, their primary focus is on machining. As a result, many shops must send parts out for secondary finishing steps such as thermal deburring, tumbling, and burnishing.

However, a CNC shop that machines metal parts with complex geometries on four and five-axis machines, sending out parts for secondary finishing not only adds to the cost, but can impact quality and increase the time it takes to deliver the parts to customers.

The Flex-Hone from Brush Research is a highly specialized abrasive tool characterized by the small, abrasive globules permanently mounted to flexible filaments. Available in many sizes, abrasive types, and grits, the tool is used for deburring, edge-blending, cross-hatching, and removing cut, torn, or folded metal.

It’s very easy to put the flexible hone in a toolholder, give it a simple toolpath cycle and let it run. With some of the other in-machine deburring tools, it can take complex four to five-axis complex paths to be effective.

While Flex-Hones are often used with automated production equipment, they can also be used for offline deburring. If any damage occurs to the bore finish during postprocessing or inspection, user is able to go back in with the hone and clean it up.

Please contact us for product details and application solutions.