A South Tyrolean company chooses Swabian ultrasonic deburring technology

Intercable Tools GmbH has been firmly rooted in Bruneck in the Italian province of South Tyrol since it was founded in 1972. Since then, the family-owned company has been one of the leading manufacturers of connection technology and tools for professionals and the industry. Since May 2024, Intercable Tools has been using ultrasonic deburring technology from Swabian company ultraTEC Innovation GmbH to remove burrs from hydraulic units in a contact-free manner automatically.

With Intercable Tec, a developer and manufacturer of automotive components, Intercable Tools forms a management-led family business with branches and over 600 employees worldwide. For some time, Intercable Tools had been looking for an automated solution to replace manually deburring hydraulic units of battery-powered hydraulic cutting tools made of aluminium and steel. Such hydraulic units are used in battery-powered perforators, which the company manufactures and distributes. These sheet metal punches are suitable for punching round, square and rectangular holes up to 3mm thick. The complex task for the ultraTEC was to remove all detachable burrs from the inside and outside of the components.

“We were looking for an innovative alternative to manual deburring. It’s also important for us to produce our variants without set-up time,” said Heinz Pramstaller, Team Leader of Metal Production at Intercable Tools. “The deburring process should also be optimally integrated into the process, and the components should be cleaned using the same product carrier as the parts cleaning system.”

The new ultraTEC A25 S system automates the manual process. The companies first contacted each other at the DeburringEXPO trade fair in Karlsruhe, Germany, in October 2023. Heinz Pramstaller brought along the component to be deburred, so an initial deburring test was carried out on the trade show machine. The component was manually guided to the sonotrode, with a positive result. The advantages of this method over the previous manual deburring process quickly became apparent to Intercable Tools. Ultrasonic deburring means that the results remain the same, there is no damage to the drill holes, and uncontrolled material removal is generally avoided. It also guarantees that no holes are forgotten, which can happen with manual deburring. The ultrasonic deburring process also has the advantage of cross bores being deburred and rinsed out simultaneously. The initial tests for Intercable Tools were, therefore, very promising.

Patented ultrasonic deburring Non-contact ultrasonic deburring with the patented sonotrode forms the foundation of ultra technology. Components to be deburred are guided in a process water basin along the tip of an ultrasonic sonotrode, whose generated vibrations cause the burrs and chamfers to break off in an automated and energy-efficient manner. Stimulated by a generator, the sonotrode oscillates back and forth 20,000 times per second over 0.1 millimetres. These generated vibrations move burrs and chamfers back and forth until they are broken off with sharp edges in a process-safe manner. Similarly, ultrasonic deburring does not apply temperature to sensitive components, which can lead to deformation and discolouration. In addition to deburring common metals, ultraTEC systems can be used with components made from various titanium and nickel alloys and fibre-reinforced plastics.

From the deburring tests in Laupheim to commissioning in South Tyrol, numerous automated deburring tests were carried out with components from Intercable Tools at ultraTEC’s premises in Laupheim. Detailed documentation was provided for each test so that the specialists from Intercable Tools could assess each one accordingly. Regular coordination meetings and a visit from South Tyroleans in Laupheim led to them placing an order for the A25 S ultrasonic deburring system in late March 2024. Two months later, the A25 S was showcased for the first time as an innovation at the GrindingHub trade fair in Stuttgart, Germany, before preliminary acceptance was already carried out at ultraTEC in mid-June 2024. Four weeks later, the A25 S was operated at Intercable Tools in Bruneck in South Tyrol.

“We’re delighted that we could implement the project quickly and that Intercable Tools chose ultraTEC to automate the deburring process,” says Thomas Benzing, Sales Manager at ultraTEC Innovation GmbH. “Maintaining a sense of partnership and trust when working with our customers is very important.”