Tangential Buffing

The tangential buff method has been the mainstay of mechanical metal finishing for over 100 years. It usually uses long buff heads— sometimes as long as 10 to 12 feet long. Mush Buffing usually uses small to medium diameter buff wheels (often 12” to 18”) turning at a fast RPM (often 1750 RPM ). Tangential Buffing uses only enough buffs to cover the area being buffed. The key to Tangential Buffing is to run fast, hard and hot—it does not contour much to the part or bury deep into the buff wheel but buffs quickly on the edge of the buff. The surface to be buffed is best positioned tangential to the buff (90 degrees) thus the name.

Because of the need to properly position the part to the buff, Tangential Buffing works well in hand operations where the part is easily manipulated. For the same reason it is also very common with robotic applications. Tangential buffing is also very good on flat or round parts that are easily fixtures and do not have complex geometries.

The more aggressive nature and higher temperatures makes Tangential Buffing very good for simple shapes made out of ferrous materials such as Steel and Stainless. These harder metals require higher forces to buff properly. In addition, the higher temperatures in Tangential Buffing usually require all cotton tangential buffs—the temperatures are often too hot for poly-cotton fabrics.