[m_morgan]

Firstly, hi! Long time lurker, first time posting.

Is it possible to machine components without producing burrs? What I mean is, if you use the correct cutter, at the perfect speeds and feeds, will the last piece of material be sheared free from the stock, rather than smeared over the edge, causing a burr?

I'm looking at a whole series of steel components which come in pre-turned, and have splines machined on them, before being deburred and hardened. The cycle time for cutting splines on these parts should be pretty low, but the circlip grooves and ends of the part produce pretty serious burrs which take a while to file off.

At the minute, 4 guys are having to work 12 hour shifts with deburring tools, dentists drills, etc. to remove the burrs. Not good.

Also, there's similar sized parts which have internal splines that are broached, rather than cut on a gear cutting machine. These also have serious burrs at the bottom of the broached hole, which are a nightmare to deburr.

What do you guys think? Could the burrs be resolved by a change in the cutting conditions, or do we have to live with them?