00:00Welcome to Beyond the Burrs, the podcast where precision meets performance, brought to you by
00:09Able Electropolishing. In each episode, we explore the hidden challenges, innovations,
00:15and breakthroughs behind metal finishing, fasteners, and the critical components that
00:19keep the world running. Whether you're an engineer, manufacturer, or just fascinated
00:25by what makes modern industry tick, we'll take you beyond the burrs and into the science of a perfect
00:31finish. Welcome. I'm Pat Dunnigan, and I'm here with Scott Potter, the Vice President of Sales for Able
00:38Electropolishing. Able is a 71-year-old family-owned company in Chicago that pioneered the commercial
00:45application of a process known as electropolishing. And today, Able is the world's largest electropolishing
00:52specialist. Hi, Scott. Hi, good morning. Good morning. Why don't you begin by telling us what
00:59we need to know about electropolishing? What is electropolishing? Well, simply, it's a reverse
01:06plating process. Most people have dealt with plating in their finishing history, but electropolishing is
01:13the reverse polarity. We electrochemically remove the outer skin of metal. And what we do is we're
01:21improving micro-inch finish. We're deburring the parts, adding corrosion resistance, giving a decorative
01:27finish, all in one step. So today, we're focused on electropolishing for fasteners, bolts, screws, nuts,
01:36often a very tiny part, but a lot of big parts wouldn't work without them. Why are fasteners important,
01:42and what kind of fasteners does Able finish?
01:44Well, they're very important because they hold together intricate machinery, equipment, everything
01:53from semiconductor to, you know, bridges. And they serve a very important purpose, and they have to be
02:06able to endure longevity in environmental situations. So they are very important in many structures.
02:16What are some examples of the types of fasteners that Able finishes?
02:20I do all kinds of hex head cap screws, slotted screws. The designs of the heads over the years have
02:31gotten a lot more complex, but do a lot of hex head cap screws probably are number one.
02:39And what kind of equipment are they going into?
02:42They use them in bridges. They use them in construction. They use them in automotive applications.
02:49And from everything from automobiles to trucks to fire trucks, a lot of examples where they need
03:01multiple benefits from a process like ours.
03:04Have you seen a lot of changes in the way fasteners are made or the types of fasteners that you're seeing?
03:09What's different from what you saw, you know, 10 years ago?
03:13Yeah. Head design, a lot of custom design on the heads, threads. Sometimes you have a partial thread.
03:20You don't have a thread all the way up the shaft. One of the things that's changed, probably the biggest
03:26change we've seen is the tight tolerances. The tolerances have been tightened up as far as, and which,
03:33you know, leads to better quality and repeatability as far as the machining goes. But
03:39probably I would say that the number one thing is, is the tighter tolerances, especially in the
03:47automotive industry required. What other types of specifications do fastener manufacturers have
03:54to meet? Well, they've, one of the things that they, they like to meet is ASTM A967, which is a,
04:04which is a passivation specification. Most, most people are used to passivating
04:09fasteners. But, you know, to get the extra benefits, the electropolishing, it does include the
04:16requirements for passivation. One of the specs that we certified to a lot is ASTM B912,
04:23which is the use of electropolishing for purposes of passivation. So they, they require,
04:30a lot of these companies are requiring more than just the standard passivation, what they've seen in
04:35the past. When are some of the other challenges faced by the fastener industry?
04:41Well, the big thing is, is obviously overseas competition. Rockford, Illinois, you know,
04:48years ago used to be the fastener capital of the world. And as, as labor increased, you know,
04:57people started looking to save money. And so they started partnering up with people, uh, um, overseas
05:03and, um, a lot of companies, uh, you know, they, they, they built facilities over overseas because
05:11they, they have, you know, plenty of, uh, cheap labor, um, and also open up, uh, you know, capacity
05:19issues as well. Um, but, um, yeah, and also, uh, you know, we've had, uh, the, uh, situation with the
05:30tariffs. That's been a big, a big issue here because, um, you know, those, those companies
05:36who are importing the raw materials and still trying to be competitive here are having a tough
05:41time. Uh, and they're, they're being forced to, in many cases, import, uh, you know, foreign, uh,
05:48you know, foreign parts. So how does ABLE help? What, what problems does ABLE and electropolishing
05:56help solve for fastener manufacturers? Well, one of the things is, uh, we're, we, we have bulk
06:02electropolishing, which is, uh, is obviously a lot less costly than rack electropolishing. Um, and
06:11we also, we operate, uh, three shifts, five days a week here. So we can turn around, you know,
06:20high volume orders of, of parts. Uh, we've, uh, implemented a lot of automated equipment. We've
06:26spent millions of dollars implementing that. And so we can, we can handle not only the, um, the volume,
06:33but also we can have good repeatability with our bulk process. We've come up with, uh, uh,
06:39automation enhanced process, which helps for, uh, helps with uniformity. It's an automated
06:46agitation system that we have. Um, so those, those two big things, I mean, when you, when you're,
06:51when you're dealing with, with tight, tight margin, close margins, it's, uh, you know, they're,
06:56they're, they're looking to save, uh, you know, pennies, um, which, you know, with the volume,
07:01it definitely adds up.
07:02So is that automation enhanced bulk electro polishing a differentiator? Is that a process
07:10that Abel created?
07:12It is. It is something, it is a differentiator. Uh, there are people who do bulk electro polishing,
07:17but they don't do a very good job of it. We've taken it to the next step. Uh, in order for us to
07:22win business, we've had to have, uh, improved throughput and not with the throughput, we also
07:27have to have repeatability with our quality. So it's something that's, uh, homegrown here,
07:33something that we developed. Um, and it's something that, uh, our, our customers are very,
07:39uh, they're very proud of, uh, what we've done. Um, the big thing is, is that you have with,
07:46with the bulk process, you have a variation in the removal on the parts. You can have anywhere from,
07:51from two tenths to a thousandth traditionally. Uh, we've tightened that up. Um, so we, we have,
07:57you have less variation from part to part, um, not only in the size, but also in the,
08:02the aesthetics.
08:05What are the advantages of electro polishing for fasteners?
08:10Well, one of the big ones is, is it, uh, eliminates galling, uh, by removing burrs, micro burrs,
08:17uh, you eliminate, uh, potential of parts seizing up in the assembly line. Um, also, uh, the,
08:27uh, parts that we do for, um, automotive, uh, applications, uh, fire trucks, uh, semi trucks,
08:35uh, they're on the road all the time. They're concerned about, uh, corrosion from road salts.
08:39Uh, so corrosion is, is, is a, is a big one as well, or a lot of these, uh, these parts,
08:45they're specked out with salt spray test, um, requirements that they have to meet. Um,
08:52and then micro inch finish. And we, you know, we're able to improve the micro inch finish by up to 50%
08:57with the electro polishing, which, um, enables some of these, uh, these people to be able to mark,
09:03to make the parts per print, um, fatigue life, uh, improvement. We're, uh, removing the fissures
09:11and cracks in the material so that, uh, you don't have any situation with a premature failure.
09:16Are there other services that you provide to fastener manufacturers?
09:22We do, uh, we do, uh, in, in some cases, some people might want us to degrease the parts. We
09:28have, uh, vacuum vapor degreasing. Uh, we also, uh, offer nitric and citric passivation. Um, but,
09:37uh, mainly the most of the, most of the work that we do for in, uh, in, as far as fastener
09:44finishing is done with the, uh, bulk electro polishing. Okay. So what's the best way to learn
09:52more about the services that ABLE can provide for fastener manufacturers? Well, we have, uh,
09:58a lot of information on our website. We have, uh, uh, we have pages, uh, for the specific industries,
10:05but we also have information that's geared toward the fastener industry. So, uh, I would welcome you to,
10:11uh, to go on and use our new AI search, uh, which you'll search through hundreds of pages of,
10:18of content that we have. Uh, I think you'll find it, uh, very helpful. Um, and, um, if,
10:25if you're interested, we're, uh, always willing to run free samples. Uh, you'll see when you get onto
10:31our website, right on our homepage, you can see, um, the sample request button. You just, uh, you can
10:38fill out a transmittal form and send samples into us that we do free of charge and normally turn
10:44around in 24 to 48 hours. You can also go on there and you can also request a quote. We can upload a
10:50drawing and you can, uh, you can, we can get you a quote. So if you're like, ah, what, you know,
10:54before I get too far into this, I want to know a ballpark price, or you want to know how much it
10:59costs, we'd be happy to work up a quote for you as well. How does the free sample process work? Is
11:05there a minimum or number of parts that someone would have to send in or? There is, uh, with the
11:12bulk, we try to replicate production as much as we can. Uh, we, we like a minimum of 250, uh, samples,
11:19uh, as far as bulk. And then at the same time, we can actually run some parts, uh, with rack as well.
11:25So typically with rack, we only need like, you know, like a dozen parts. Uh, but a lot of people,
11:30they're not quite sure what process that they need. So we'll run bulk and rack samples at the
11:36same time. So, uh, but yeah, if you could, uh, you know, give us enough to, enough to experiment
11:42with, and this way we can give you something that's going to be, uh, representative of production.
11:47Okay. Well, that sounds like a good place to start and maybe a good place for us to finish.
11:51That was very informative and thank all of you for watching. For more information, you can visit the
11:57Able Electropolishing website, or you can reach out by phone to learn more about Able solutions for
12:02the fastener industry. Thank you. Thanks for listening.
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