Sharmic Engineering – UK Vibratory Surface Finishing Specialists
Company Introduction
Sharmic Engineering is a family-run Worcestershire business founded in 1975 by Brian Colwell. Its very name, combining “Sharon” and “Michelle,” reflects the company’s family roots and values. Over three generations Sharmic has built deep technical expertise in vibratory surface finishing while remaining agile and UK-wide in reach. From its inception, Sharmic’s vision has been to deliver innovative, affordable finishing solutions with a hands-on, customer-focused ethos. Today the company is proud of its heritage, reputation for quality, and personal approach, serving industries across the UK with a full range of precision vibratory finishing machinery, consumables, and support services.
Vibratory Finishing Equipment
Sharmic supplies a comprehensive line-up of mass finishing machines tailored to diverse components and applications. Each machine type offers a specific finishing benefit:
- Vibratory Bowl Machines: These circular bowl finishers agitate Components with abrasive media to deburr, radius and polish many small components. Bowls may have manual or automatic Components unload systems. High-speed vibration keeps media in a fluidised bed, letting Components tumble gently against each other and the abrasive media. The bowl can be fitted with perforated screens or ramps for automatic separation of finished Components at cycle end. Special designs prevent Components-to-Components contact (carousel divider systems), ensuring delicate Components are handled safely and consistently. Overall, vibratory bowls offer high throughput for batch processing of metal, plastic, or ceramic Components, improving finish and productivity over manual methods.
Vibratory bowl finishers use rapid circular vibration to deburr, degrease, protect against rust, radius, descale and polish Components, with media and component motion tuned for uniform results.
- Vibratory Tub/Trough Machines: Trough or tub finishers use an open-top, rectangular container for larger or irregular Components. They are ideal when components are too big or bulky for round bowls. components are placed individually or in batches into a trough; heavy-duty vibration and specially shaped media then abrade surfaces. Trough machines often include partitions or clamps to isolate sensitive items during processing. These machines handle big batches cost-effectively (e.g. large ductile castings, machined brackets) and are popular for operations like deburring of heavy items.
- Vibratory Dryers: Used after wet finishing, vibratory dryers speed up moisture removal. They use gentle vibration plus absorbent media (often Maizorb) to lift and separate water from Components. Many models have internal heaters. As Components bounce and media flows around them, moisture is wicked away and evaporated. This yields dry, “coating-ready” Components without stains or residue. Vibratory dryers are compact (often integrated with finishing lines) and greatly cut post-wash drying time.
- Rotary Barrel Tumblers: Rotary barrels are horizontal drums that slowly spin components with abrasive media and compounds. The tumbling action gently polishes or deburrs Components over longer cycles. Barrels are one of the oldest finishing methods and remain in use for some applications where an exceptionally smooth finish is needed at low cost. They can handle large quantities of Components or very delicate items (with media like plastic or organic media) and are often used for pre-polishing or burnishing before more advanced processes. While slower than vibratory machines, barrels are simple and effective for many non-critical finishing tasks.
- Centrifugal Disc Finishing Machines: Also known as high-energy finishers, these machines create an intense, centrifugal force to accelerate media and components around a spinning disc. A rotating motor-driven disc at the bottom of the bowl flings workpieces and media against the stationary sides. This produces an extremely fast, aggressive scrubbing action – often 10× faster than standard vibratory finishers. Centrifugal disc machines deliver rapid deburring, aggressive polishing, or edge grinding, achieving high-quality finishes on even intricate Components in a short cycle time. They are ideal where speed and tight finish control are needed (for example, small aerospace or medical Components requiring mirror finishes).
- Centrifugal Drying and Degreasing Machines: These are high-speed centrifuges that spin Components to eject water, oils, or compounds. In a centrifugal dryer, Components are placed in a perforated basket which then spins at high RPM; water is flung out through the perforations. Some designs combine centrifugal force with hot air or vacuum, enabling ultra-dry outputs with minimal effort. Centrifugal degreasing units work similarly but focus on stripping oil and coolant: a stainless-steel basket spins at high speed to rake oil off Components and media debris. By rapidly separating liquids from Components, these machines eliminate drips and stains and dramatically shorten drying/degreasing time, with no mechanical part damage.
- Vibratory Sieves and Separators: After finishing, Sharmic’s vibratory sieves quickly sort Components from media and compound. These linear screen machines vibrate the wet or dry mixture, causing Components (or fines) to be thrown against a sloped screen. Smaller particles and liquids pass through, while larger Components are conveyed off the end. This yields clean components ready for inspection and reusable media and compound recycled back into the process. High-precision separations and dust containment mean little waste and fast turnarounds. In short, Sharmic’s separators automate the tedious task of media-part recovery with high efficiency and accuracy
- Single-Phase Vibratory Tumblers: These compact finishers run on standard single-phase power and suit small workshops or labs without industrial 3-phase supply. Sharmic’s single-phase tumblers (models VA18–VA75) handle small batches of small Components on household current. They are simple to install and operate – ideal for prototype finishing or low-volume jobs. Despite their size, they perform the same polishing, deburring, and smoothing functions of larger machines but on a smaller scale. In practice, single-phase tumblers provide a cost-effective way to achieve uniform, high-quality finishes on metal, plastic, or ceramic samples without complex installation.
- Effluent Systems & Water Recycling: Wastewater from vibratory finishing contains metal fines, oils, and compounds. Sharmic offers effluent treatment systems tackle this. Such systems filter out solids, coalesce oils and even recycle clean water for reuse. By processing rinse waters on-site, companies avoid high disposal costs and meet environmental regulations. Advanced setups can achieve “zero liquid discharge,” returning virtually all water back to the process and capturing sludge on a filter press. In short, Sharmic’s effluent solutions turn waste into a resource, saving money and ensuring compliance.
Brian Cowell
Managing Director
Sharon Edwards
General Manager
Garry Edwards
Technical Sales Director
Michelle Francis
Office Manager
Reece Bennett
Area Sales & Marketing Manager
James Turner
Technical Sales Manager
Vibratory Finishing Consumables
Sharmic supplies the full suite of mass-finishing media and compounds – all chosen for performance and longevity. Key consumables include:
- Plastic, Ceramic and Porcelain Media: Rigid moulded media in various shapes and sizes, bonded with abrasives. Plastic media is lightweight and ideal for polishing softer metals (aluminium, brass, zinc), as it cuts gently with silica/sand abrasives and will not peen over or discolour Components. Ceramic media is denser and used for heavy-duty cutting on hard steels and superalloys – it can also deburr rough-cast or stainless components effectively. Porcelain media is a special high-density ceramic formulated to give an exceptionally smooth, high-gloss finish (as a final polishing step) without removing material.
- Organic Media (Maizorb and Walnut Shell): Natural, lightweight media made from ground corn cob (Maizorb) or crushed walnut shells. These are excellent for dry processing or light polishing. For example, corn cob media absorbs moisture and leaves Components clean and bright and is often used in the final stage of finishing to produce an exceptionally fine lustre Walnut shells are similar, offering gentle deburring and burnishing. Both media can be mixed with polishing paste for an eco-friendly, resin-free polish on aluminium, stainless and even precious metal Components. Because they are organic, they are also suitable for sensitive processes (e.g. electronic or food-industry Components), and they biodegrade over time.
- Finishing Compounds (Liquid, Powder, and Paste): Special chemicals that enhance the vibratory process. Liquid compounds are the most common – they keep components and media clean, reduce friction, and prevent corrosion during wet finishing. Powder compounds can be added for heavy cleaning or to boost cutting. Polishing pastes are used in abrasive or final polish stages to accelerate material removal and impart shine. All Sharmic compounds are formulated to rinse off easily. The right compound is critical – it emulsifies oils, prevents media glazing, and enables smoother cutting, thus optimising every mass-finishing cycle.
- Steel Burnishing Media: Hardened carbon or stainless-steel burnishing balls and pins. Because of their high density, steel media apply strong pressure to Components, burnishing the surface to a bright, mirror-like finish. Steel media are ideal for final polishing of ferrous components or for heavy-duty deburring where maximum impact is needed. They are very long-lasting (steel media wear slowly) but require machines designed to manage the higher centrifugal mass. In practice, they are used when an extra-bright shine or fine edge rounding is required on durable metals.
- Grinding Wheels: Precision abrasive wheels (mounted points or discs) for finishing that requires cutting on a rotating axis. These are used in specialized finishing machines or as accessories to provide abrasive action on flat or contoured surfaces (e.g. in table-top polishers). Sharmic stocks a range of bonded abrasive wheels for everything from light deburring to aggressive grinding of sharp edges. These complement the vibratory process by enabling manual or power-assisted finishing for stubborn burrs or textured surfaces.
- Shot Blasting Media: Hard abrasive particles (steel shot, stainless shot, glass beads, aluminium oxide grit, etc.) for blasting processes. When vibratory or barrel finishing alone is not enough (for example, removing heavy scale, rust, or coatings), shot blasting media are used in blast cabinets or blast machines. These media peen the surface with tiny impacts, cleaning and texturing it. Sharmic supplies all common blasting media – from angular grit for aggressive cleaning to spherical shots for gentle peening – to prepare Components for coating, plating, or final finishing.
- Wood Media: Natural hardwood pegs and cubes designed exclusively for dry tumbling. Wood media is loaded with finishing polish and then tumbled with workpieces; no water is used. This technique produces a near-mirror finish on sensitive Components (plastics, composites, delicate metals) without risk of corrosion or water spotting. Wood media is very long-lived and produces no slurry, making it ideal for final polishing of eyeglass frames, jewellery, coated Components, and plastics.
Services
Sharmic offers full-service support alongside its products – emphasising hands-on expertise, reliability, and cost-saving for customers. Key services include:
- Subcontract Surface Finishing: Sharmic’s in-house finishing shop can handle your work on demand. We deburr, polish, descale and polish and more with your components using our machinery and consumables, delivering ready-to-use components without any capital investment from you. This frees your team to focus on production while we ensure each part meets its finish specifications efficiently and consistently.
- Separator Screen Replacement: Our technicians re-mesh vibratory separators (both bonded rubber screens and clamped grid types) to keep them running at peak efficiency. Worn separator screens can cause jams or poor separation; Sharmic replaces them to guarantee proper media/part segregation.
- Machine Repairs and Re-lining: We can repair and overhaul vibratory finishing equipment of many makes. This covers everything from bowl/tub linings (replacing worn rubber or polyurethane layers) to motor rewinds and bearing replacements. Whether it is a mechanical breakdown or routine rebuild, our workshop ensures your machines are restored to factory standards. Minimising downtime on site saves you both time and the cost of emergency replacements.
- Free Component Testing & Analysis: New to mass finishing? Sharmic offers no-obligation test runs on your sample components. Just send us a sample batch and we’ll run it on our machines with various media/compound mixes to dial in the optimal process – all at no cost. This hands-on trial helps prove the process benefits and fine-tune parameters before you buy equipment or media.
- Onsite Commissioning, Training and Support: Every new Sharmic machine comes with onsite commissioning and operator training. Our engineers commission and fine-tune the equipment, then walk your team through proper use and maintenance. We also offer follow-up support – if process parameters change or new staff need training, our experts provide onsite refresher sessions. Sharmic’s commitment extends beyond delivery: we back all machines with after-sales technical support and consultancy, helping you maximise uptime and productivity.
Industries Served
Sharmic’s customers span aerospace, automotive, medical, general manufacturing, and engineering sectors. In aerospace and automotive, tight tolerances and safety-critical Components demand flawless surfaces – vibratory finishing ensures burr-free, fatigue-resistant components with consistent coatings adhesion. In medical and electronics, smooth, clean finishes are vital for hygiene and precision; Sharmic’s gentle finishing processes remove machining marks and radiusing edges without contaminating delicate Components. Even in general industrial and engineering applications, a proper surface finish extends part life (improving wear and corrosion resistance) and often enhances functionality or appearance. Across these fields, surface finishing is a key final step that significantly boosts product quality and reliability.
Conclusion
With nearly 50 years of family heritage in vibratory finishing, Sharmic Engineering blends traditional values with modern innovation. Our UK-based team is dedicated to reliable machinery, high-quality consumables, and exceptional service. From bespoke machine solutions to hands-on support, we partner with customers to save time and cost while achieving world-class finishes. Trust Sharmic for your surface finishing needs – our long track record and technical expertise mean you’re in experienced hands. Contact Sharmic Engineering today to discuss your project; our experts are ready to help you optimise your finishing processes and achieve outstanding results.
