1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the art of workpiece surface finishing, and more particularly provides the deburring (removal of burrs), finishing, polishing, and other like functions for workpieces that usually carry respective bores to be worked on and finally finished. More particularly, the present invention uses a rotary tool such as a brushing device to accomplish those functions, which includes a functional element that may be applied upon the workpieces to remove any burrs from the marginal edges and/or interiors of the bores through the workpieces.
It should be understood in connection with the present invention that the term "rotary tool" referred to hereinafter may include all tools having a resilient property and having a particular shape such as cylindrical, conical/tapered, and the like, which are made of a bundle of wire-brushes, fibrous materials, or plastics (including nylon) that contain any appropriate abrading substances, or buffs which are made of cloth. It should also be understood that those tools have the good resilient contact that allows them to engage the corners of the workpiece to be worked on, and provide the mechanical rigidiy or strength or functional ability or both. Thus, the good surface finishing results such as deburring can be obtained by using those tools.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a conventional surface finishing method or apparatus that is designed to provide the deburring function, for example. According to that method or apparatus, the deburring operation occurs for a workpiece with a bore from which any burrs are to be removed. During the deburring process, the workpiece is placed with regard to the apparatus to ensure that the center axis through the bore is properly aligned with the center axis through the rotary tool on the apparatus. Then, the rotary tool is rotated with a high speed while it is being inserted into the bore through the workpiece. The deburring operation actually occurs by moving the rotary tool with a reciprocating motion with regard to the workpiece (this teaching is disclosed in Japan's Utility Model Application No. 62-28376 which is now published).
The conventional deburring method or apparatus is disadvantageous in that the rotary tool has the significantly great ratio of the number of revolutions (n) to the number of reciprocating motions (N) (such as 50&lt;n/N&lt;100). As such, the rotary tool must have its blade tip placed at a relatively small angle with regard to the bore of the workpiece from which any burrs are to be removed. That is, the rotary tool must have its blade tip placed in its horizontal position against the bore of the workpiece. In that way, the blade tip can easily deviate or escape from the point where any burrs that should thereby be removed are located, so that not all burrs may completely be removed.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds