Hand Buffing & Polishing
Buffing and polishing occurs when cloth wheels turning at a high rate of speed contact the metal surface removing metal material. This “soft” approach to metal removal results is a highly polished bright surface. Buffing and hand polishing are necessary when the parts being processed require delicate handling in order to preserve the desirable bright finish. Automatic cloth buffing equipment allows cell building and facilitates greater production efficiency. These production efficiencies make for good cost savings and are passed directly onto customer pricing. Not all products can be processed utilizing automatic cloth buffing equipment and when hand polishing operations are required, we are staffed with experienced personnel providing the highest quality finishing possible. Parts we normally process with buffing/polishing equipment tend to be larger and delicate base metal products where maintaining detail is important. Also, most precious metal products require specialized handling and finishing.
Automatic Polishing
On the other hand, machine finishing occurs when vibrating abrasive and burnishing media against metal surfaces in order to condition the surface mechanically. This approach can be applied to those parts capable of being “mass handled” without sustaining noticeable abrasion or damage and when the final finish is not required to be highly polished bright. Processing parts through finishing machines such as vibratory machines and tumblers can offer even greater cost savings resulting in lower price structures. This approach is normally reserved for smaller parts with detailed surfaces which tend to mask surface abrasions and small scratches resulting from machine finishing.