Study on Magnetic Barrel Machine Equipped with Three-Dimensional Arrangement of Magnets

At present, a commercially available magnetic barrel machine equipped with permanent magnets has some faults arising from constructional reason. That is, grinding or finishing ability is different from place to place in the machining region, resulting in the limitation on the region we can use in the container of workpieces. Therefore, in this research, authors made the new magnetic barrel machine equipped with three dimensional (3D) magnet arrangement to overcome these faults. The grinding ability of the new 3D magnetic barrel machine converted was experimentally examined, and compared with that of the traditional magnetic barrel machine. As a result, it was shown that we can use much broader region in the new 3D machine. It was also shown that the grinding ability became higher. The distribution of barrel media in action was recorded by means of a high speed video camera. It was clarified that the media rose up higher and were distributed more uniformly in the container by the effect of the magnet block newly set up. It was supposed that this must be the reason for the above-mentioned improvement of grinding ability.