Automatic Deburring of 3D-Printed Parts Using a Delta Robot and Augmented Reality

The strong demand for automated processes in modern manufacturing is driven by the need to replace manual and experience-based methods with emerging digital technologies to improve efficiency and performance. In mechanical engineering design, rapidly prototyped or 3D-printed parts are typically produced with excess material to ensure better print quality, necessitating a deburring step in the production process. While traditional deburring can be performed manually with tools, automating this process offers significant efficiency gains. This paper presents the automation of an application-specific deburring process through the integration of robotics, 3D-printing, and augmented reality systems. The programmed automatic deburring system deburred more than 100 3D-printed unmanned aerial vehicle parts (drone arms) under various settings to test and validate its performance. The results identified the optimal parameters as a robot speed of 43 mm/s, a grinder speed of 2,550 RPM, a grinder height of 78.5 mm, and a grinding tool diameter of 7.6 mm. The successful combination of robotics, 3D-printing, and augmented reality in this work strongly supports the Industry 4.0 paradigm, where industrial processes are expected to be more intelligent and collaborative, enhancing the interaction between machine tools and operators.