Right Shine, Right Grip – A Case Study About RC200 Mirror Polishing Machine

LUPIT POLE – MIRROR POLISHING DANCE POLES

 

Lupit Pole is a Slovenian company producing dance poles and related products. In 2017, they decided to invest in equipment that would allow them to replace their manual process with a more productive automatic operation.

Industry requirements for a product such as a dance pole demand the surface possess two indispensable characteristics: a glossy, shiny, mirror-like finish for aesthetic reasons and a high-adherence grip to prevent slipping when someone is performing. The solution they opted for in order to satisfy their need for greater productivity and versatility —in short, their need for an overall better process— was our RC200 Round Tube Centerless Finishing and Mirror Polishing Machine.
Their current process has two different stages. They begin with a belt grinding stage, which has 6 steps with a feed rate of 3m/min., starting with a 180-grit belt to remove deeper imperfections and going up to a 2500-grit belt as a surface preparation process for mirror polishing. Then comes the mirror polishing stage, which only has 2 steps with a feed rate of 1m/min. The tube is polished using cotton wheels first and flannel wheels afterward.

All of this is done on the same machine. To go from belt grinding to mirror polishing all you need to do is swap the contact roller for the polishing wheel, which is very easily and quickly interchangeable, and you are good to go.
Whereas before Lupit Pole’s manual process took around 3 hours to completely finish a 2.5-meter tube (i.e., from the preparation finish to the final mirror finish), now with the RC200 they are able to process a tube with the exact same specifications in less than 30 minutes. This equates to a decrease of over 80% in production time.

The company works with Ø40mm and Ø45mm tubes and uses water-cooling to prevent them from overheating during the belt grinding stage of their production process.

MACHINE BENEFITS

Interchangeable Belt Grinding & Mirror Polishing Tools

Possibility to do both belt grinding and mirror polishing on the same machine for maximum versatility and a complete, high-quality surface finishing process.

Belt grinding can be done as a preparation process for mirror polishing using an abrasive belt combined with a contact roller. The mirror polishing itself is done using cotton or flannel wheels.

Wide Variety of Diameters

RC machines are prepared to work with a great variety of diameters, from tubes as small as Ø10mm up to ones as large as Ø340mm, covering the vast majority of working sizes for tube fabricators.

Fast and Easy Adjustment for Different Diameters

The newest RC tube guiding system includes an adjustable support for the base of the tube. This support is located between the finishing heads and can be regulated for different diameters using a simple handwheel which also simultaneously and accordingly adjusts the support tables at the entrance and exit of the machine.

Dry Operation

The RC200 gives the user the option to do centerless belt sanding in a simple and standard dry operation, the likes of which is also used for mirror polishing on the same machine.

Water-cooled Operation

Centerless belt sanding with water-cooling. Helps reduce the temperature generated on the surface of the tube, preventing material distortion and increasing safety when working with potentially explosive materials such as aluminum.

mirror polishing surface finishing machine
pipe polishing machine

    Send file (.pdf, .jpg up to 10MB)         


    Share this post