Special Issue on Deburring, Chamfering, and Edge Quality

Regardless of whether they are cut, drilled, cast, or punched when manufactured, most products have edges that must be finished, usually by deburring or chamfering. Yet despite the importance of these operations, surprisingly little research has been done due to their difficulty. This calls for new analyses and approaches to be applied. The problem of edge quality may be approached in three ways. First, as human workers do, edges to be finished are specified on parts for quality. While it requires much information about product shape, methods, and tools used by human worker can be easily adopted. Second, the entire product, its surfaces and edges, may be treated, e.g., as in barrel finishing, so that large numbers of small parts are processed efficiently and quickly. Third, burrs may be prevented before they occur, e.g., by reducing cutting force or heat-treating the material used. This special issue features six papers on deburring, chamfering, and edge quality treated in all three ways. The first paper widely reviews issues on edge quality, although its title suggests a focus on deburring. The second discusses the treatment of edges on very fine parts deburred using a magnetic brush. The third introduces micro drilling suppressing burrs and the fourth also introduces metal cutting for suppressing burr using Laser. The fifth proposes the automation of deburring using mass-production industrial robots. The sixth introduces a commercial magnetic finishing machine for processing large lots of small parts. In closing, I would like to thank the authors, reviewers, and editors without whose hard work and earnest cooperation this issue could not have been completed.