Here is set of photos showing the progression of vapor polishing a plastic part. The first shot is of the part before polishing. The second is during vapor polishing. We only polished half of it to show the difference in finish that vaporing can offer. The final photo is of the part fully vapored. Many potential customers ask about having us vapor parts that they machined. Normally, we do the machining in house but we also offer vaporing as a service. The thing about vapor polishing though, is that any surface imperfections can be magnified. For example, if you give us a piece of machined acrylic, ultem, or polycarbonate that has heavy feed lines or chatter, the vaporing will bring out the poor finish. The truth is, poor finish in = shiny poor finish out. If your machining is fundamentally good and your surface finish is smooth, vapor polishing can brilliantly polish your plastic parts. Engineers and Machinists should also know that overly aggressive machining can impart stress in the finished parts. This can be problematic during the vapor polishing process because the parts may end up with crazing visible inside the material or on the surface. Ultimately, we like to do our machining in-house so we can be sure the parts our customers receive will be as good as possible. However, If your in-house machining work is strong, you will be very satisfied with East Coast Precision Manufacturing’s vapor polishing service. Can’t wait to hear from you!
This is the machining of the part we first featured on the blog a week or so ago. The process for other materials is very similar. We chose acrylic because the chip we produced was easy to blow off with a blast of air. Other materials would require cutting fluids and would have made it difficult to record and see clearly. Hope you enjoy.
UPDATE: It has come to my attention that the sound track to the video was quite obnoxious. Problem fixed. Apparently, youtube offers stock music for videos you upload. Pretty Cool.
Sometimes it is necessary to utilize multiple machines to effectively produce a part for our customers. This is an example of that. This manifold is machined from acrylic. A turning center (lathe) is used to turn the outside diameter and round features that are concentric to the center of the part. A vertical machining center (mill) is used to complete the rest of the features. On this part, we can see some port work, deep hole milling, and thread milling.
The manifold is also vapor polished for a nice finish. Acrylic vapor polishes quite well but if you need “optical” clarity, polycarbonate would be the way to go.
Take a look at this acrylic manifold we made for one of our customers. It features four ports connected to a main track. Each port features thread-milled threads.
This part also showcases our vapor polishing process. Not only can we polish the exterior of a part, we can polish interior features that would not normally be able to be polished otherwise.
This is an example of some of the Acrylic work we can do in our lathe department.
This part has a few different features. The front face has a knife edge where it blends with the inside diameter. It also has a 3 barbs machined on the outside diameter. There is also a groove and contouring on the rest of the OD.
The inside diameter is drilled thru and features a counterbore on the knife edge (end facing up)
East Coast Precision Manufacturing provides customers with precision machined plastic parts. We also offer many services including polishing, vapor polishing, annealing, assembly and packaging. Let us know how we can team with your company to produce the best plastic parts possible.
