Barrel polishing automated and is used on generally small sized precision machine parts and complex shaped parts by placing them in rotary barrels or vibrating barrels with polishing agents and compounds. Since the efficiency is high, it is becoming popular in light of automation and labor saving needs.

The rotary barrel polishing rotates the polishing agents and work pieces inside a tumbling barrel. As shown on [Fig.1], the top layer of the subject parts fall against the direction of the rotation creating a slide layer. This slide layer recirculates and polishes the entire batch uniformly.

The amount of polishing varies depending on barrel rpm sue to changes in slide layer formulation. For normal polishing, 30~40rpm is appropriate, and 15~20 rpm for gloss finishing. Generally, when the barrel DIA is D [m] and barrel fill ratio is 55%, the polishing condition relationship is said to be shown as in [Table 1].

[Table 1] Barrel rpm and polishing condition

There are horizontal type and triple type of rotary barrel polishing. The triple type was supposedly named after the effects of the sides. [Fig.2] shows the flow of barrel contents, and [Fig.3] external appearances of the both.