As metal and alloy prices continue to rise, machine shops and manufacturers are seeking every opportunity to control costs without sacrificing quality. One often overlooked area for cost reduction is the deburring and finishing process. Traditional methods—such as manual deburring or inefficient tooling—can lead to excessive scrap, high labor costs, variable quality, and even workplace injuries, which result in costly downtime.
Overcoming Tariffs: How Machine Shops Can Reduce Costs
Businesses are increasingly concerned about the impact of tariffs on U.S. manufacturing, particularly regarding material costs and supply chain stability. To stay competitive, machine shops are closely monitoring key cost factors, including:
- Increased material costs for raw materials and imported components
- Higher operating expenses for equipment maintenance and parts
- Supply chain disruptions from supplier changes and delays
- Competitive disadvantages from pricing pressures or customer losses
- Rising administrative costs for customs documentation and legal fees
- Potential export market losses due to retaliatory tariffs
- Long-term strategic costs from R&D investments
On the positive side, reshoring is predicted to accelerate, reducing exposure to global disruptions and logistics issues, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The potential for increased work through reshoring means manufacturers will have to evolve at a rapid-fire pace, implementing new technologies and smarter supply chains to keep up with demand.
Automate, Save, Compete: Deburring Smarter with Xebec
By automating labor-intensive processes with Xebec ceramic fiber deburring and finishing brushes, manufacturers can significantly cut costs while improving precision, consistency and efficiency. Here’s how:
Significantly Reduce Scrap and Material Waste
Lower material costs by preventing rework and rejected parts.
Scrapped parts are among the most expensive setbacks for manufacturers. Some metals used in machining can be quite expensive, such as titanium, which has increased in price 7.87% since the beginning of 2025. This is more relevant now that tariffs will result in increasing material prices, especially on aluminum and steel.
Ineffective deburring leads to dimensional inaccuracies and defects—putting parts straight into the scrap bin. Investing in Xebec’s ceramic fiber brushes that remove the variability of manual finishing can significantly reduce scrap and labor costs while increasing throughput.
Xebec’s ceramic fiber brushes provide repeatable deburring and surface finishing, eliminating the risk of over-processing or leaving unwanted burrs. This means fewer scrapped parts, lower material waste and substantial cost savings. By eliminating hand- or less effective deburring with Xebec’s solutions, companies can achieve edge break and tight tolerance requirements for fewer defects and scrap.
✔ Benefit: Less wasted material reduces the financial impact of rising metal and alloy prices.
🔹 Cost Impact: Scrap and rework costs can account for 5-12% of total manufacturing costs, with high-end precision machining seeing even greater losses.
Read: 5 Lean Manufacturing Challenges
Streamline Labor and Boost Productivity with Xebec
Automating deburring with Xebec tools allows manufacturers to dramatically reduce manual labor while increasing overall productivity. Xebec brushes work within the CNC machining cycle—eliminating post-processing steps and allowing more parts to be completed with fewer labor hours. Alternatively, they can be deployed in robotic cells to maximize machine uptime and reduce bottlenecks.
Manual deburring adds cost not just through labor but also through inconsistencies that lead to rework, rejected parts, or even outsourcing. Each hands-on step increases cycle time, the chance of human error, and the potential for workplace injuries.
By integrating Xebec tools, shops eliminate extra steps and avoid the costs of transporting parts for secondary finishing. With longer-lasting tools that reduce changeovers and downtime, manufacturers complete more jobs per shift while keeping labor costs under control.
✔ Benefit: Lower labor costs, faster production cycles, and greater machine utilization.
🔹 Cost Impact: Reducing manual finishing time by just 10 minutes per part on a batch of 100 parts saves over 16 labor hours—equivalent to $600–$1,200 in direct labor costs per job. In one case, a firearms manufacturer cut deburring time from 220 to 20 seconds per part, saving over $275,000 annually. View Complete Report
Read: How to Calculate the ROI on Automated Deburring with Xebec
Improve Quality, Minimize Rework, and Keep Production Moving
Inconsistent finishing is one of the biggest culprits behind quality issues and costly rework. Manual deburring or using less precise tools often introduces variability, leading to missed tolerances, surface defects, and returned parts. Each reworked part not only delays production—it also multiplies labor, material, and inspection costs.
Xebec’s ceramic fiber brushes solve this problem by delivering consistent edge quality and surface finishing—every time. Their rigid structure and uniform cutting action allow parts to meet tight tolerances and surface finish requirements with minimal variation, even on high-precision components.
This level of consistency reduces the burden on quality control, increases first-pass yield rates, and ensures that QA teams can focus on higher-value inspections rather than correcting errors. Over time, fewer defects and less rework directly translate to substantial cost savings and improved customer satisfaction.
✔ Benefit: Higher quality output, fewer rejects, and more efficient QA processes
🔹 Cost Impact: Rework costs can be 2–5x the original machining cost per part—adding up to thousands in wasted time and material.
For insights into improving surface finish and machining precision, check out this resource: Improving Surface Finish in Machining: Decoding Symbols and Hardness Factors.
🔍 Why Xebec Outperforms Nylon Brushes
While nylon brushes are an inexpensive choice for deburring, they wear quickly and often lead to uneven finishes—especially in demanding, high-precision applications.
Xebec ceramic fiber brushes are engineered for consistent, high-performance results:
| Feature | Nylon Brushes | Xebec Ceramic Fiber Brushes |
|---|---|---|
| Durability | Wears out quickly | Long-lasting and shape-retaining |
| Finish Consistency | Prone to uneven edges | Delivers uniform surface finish |
| Precision Suitability | Limited | Ideal for tight tolerances |
| Maintenance | Requires frequent replacement | Minimal tool changes needed |
➡️ Bottom line: Xebec tools minimize rework and maximize quality—making them the better long-term investment for high-precision machining.
Read: Why Xebec Ceramic Cutting Tools Outperform Nylon Brushes in High-Precision Machining
Extend Tool Life for Lower Lifetime Tool Costs
Durable brushes reduce spending on replacement tools.
Traditional abrasive brushes wear out quickly, requiring frequent replacements. Xebec’s ceramic fiber brushes maintain their shape and cutting ability over extended periods, reducing tooling expenses and minimizing burr formation, that accelerates tool wear. Fewer changeouts mean you spend more time in production and less in downtime events.
One consideration in determining total cost is the number of parts you can produce with each Xebec tool. This longevity contributes to lower operational expenses over time.
✔ Benefit: Fewer tool replacements and extended tool life lead to direct cost savings.
🔹 Cost Impact: Reducing tool changes by just one per shift saves an estimated $5,000–$10,000 annually in tool costs per machine.
Eliminate Bottlenecks and Enable Lights-Out Machining
Automation-friendly tools maximize machine utilization.
Automating deburring and finishing processes eliminates bottlenecks and over-production while addressing the labor shortage. Xebec’s automated deburring and finishing tools help machine shops transition toward lights-out manufacturing, where CNC machines run unattended during off-hours. By eliminating manual intervention, shops can maximize productivity without increasing labor costs.
✔ Benefit: Increased operational efficiency and cost savings from reduced staffing needs.
🔹 Cost Impact: Lights-out machining can reduce labor costs by up to 30%, saving manufacturers hundreds of thousands of dollars annually depending on production volume.
Reduce Unplanned Downtime and Machine Maintenance Costs
Fewer tool changes, fewer mistakes, and a more efficient workflow.
Downtime in a machine shop can be catastrophic to productivity, whether caused by tool failures, excessive manual processes, or rework.
Over two-thirds of industrial businesses experience unplanned outages at least once a month, costing the typical business close to $125,000 per hour. Source: ABB “Value of Reliability” Survey
Xebec tools help eliminate common sources of downtime. Inconsistent methods of deburring, such as using modified hand tools, lead to defective parts or frequent tool changes that slow down production.
✔ Benefit: Higher machine uptime, fewer maintenance interruptions and better overall efficiency.
🔹 Cost Impact: Reducing downtime by just 5% per shift can save $50,000–$150,000 annually in lost production time.
Reduce Worker Injuries
Fewer hands-on operations mean fewer injuries, less downtime and lower labor costs.
Are your employees deburring and finishing parts by hand? If so, it’s only a matter of time before they are injured or overexerted. Machine shops and manufacturers as a whole benefit from automating hazardous tasks like deburring, polishing and finishing to reduce ergonomic injuries, cuts, lacerations, musculoskeletal disorders and more.
Manufacturing has among the highest injury rates of all industries. That’s why investing in safety training and administrative controls are critical to the health and success of both the company and their employees.
Manual deburring is not only time-consuming but also increases the risk of repetitive strain injuries (RSIs), cuts, and hand injuries from sharp edges. These injuries result in lost labor hours, workers’ compensation claims and potential OSHA fines.
🔹 The True Cost of Injuries:
- The average direct cost of a workplace injury (medical expenses and compensation) is $42,000 per incident (OSHA).
- Indirect costs (lost productivity, rehiring, training, and downtime) can be 4-10 times higher, meaning a single injury can cost a company over $400,000. For example, OSHA calculates the direct cost of one laceration to be around $21,800 but the amount of sales a company would need to generate to cover those costs adds up to about 37% more at $802,000.
- An American Journal of Industrial Medicine study found that, in the metal fabrication industry, an estimated 20% of injuries were machine related. Xebec brushes automate the deburring process, allowing it to be integrated directly into CNC machines or robotic arms. This eliminates the need for manual touch-ups, improves workplace safety and keeps skilled workers focused on higher-value tasks.
✔ Benefit: Lower labor costs, fewer injury-related expenses, and improved workforce efficiency.
XEBEC Brushes: A Smart Investment for Cost Reduction
For machine shops looking to mitigate the impact of rising material costs, Xebec deburring and finishing brushes provide a highly effective solution.
By reducing scrap, cutting labor costs, improving quality, extending tool life, reducing downtime and enabling automation, these tools drive efficiency while maintaining top-tier precision.
Beyond the technology, our team of experts works closely with manufacturers to analyze workflows, optimize processes and maximize cost savings. Whether through process evaluations or tailored implementation strategies, we help machine shops unlock new levels of efficiency and profitability.
Investing in advanced deburring technology isn’t just about surface quality—it’s a key strategy for cutting costs while improving quality to stay competitive in a challenging market.
Contact our experts to design a solution to cut costs and improve efficiency for your machining operation.
