rag racing started out on dry lake beds in the 1930s and moved to commercial drag strips in the 1950s. Today at NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events, there are more than 200 classes of vehicles in 15 categories—and the Top Fuel dragsters are some of the fastest-accelerating machines in the world. They can roar down the dragstrip from start to finish in less than 3.7 seconds.
These 11,000-horsepower “kings of the sport” are powered by supercharged, fuel-injected adaptations of Chrysler Hemi engines, and, at 330 mph, there’s no room for component error. Chad Head, general manager of Kalitta Motorsports, Ypsilanti, Michigan, says that “as an example, any loose burr in a cylinder head could break away and catastrophically destroy the engine.”
“For deburring applications, especially in applications like drag racing, dimensional integrity is paramount. We are able to deburr surfaces, both internal and external, while maintaining dimensional control,” adds Joe Sigal, project manager and technical sales associate with Osborn.
With ATB brushes, parts that have visible burrs on the edge and grooves on the surface are transformed into smooth, edge-rounded parts with a brushed surface. The brushes can be used on machined sheet metal, stamped and fine-blanked parts; precision, ground and lapped parts; contour-rich components; and drawn, laser-cut or milled parts in applications like cylinder heads, engine blocks, turbine blades, and hydraulic and pneumatic components.
Brushes are available in different varieties and geometries in diameters ranging from as small as 0.03 in. to as large as 16 in. They can be outfitted with different abrasive grains, fill diameters, trim lengths and fill densities.
“Our power brushes, abrasive nylon brushes and abrasives are all well suited to high-performance applications,” says Sigal. “These products last longer and complete the job faster.”
The Kalitta team is able to ensure that engine components like block internal passages and cylinder heads are perfectly finished through the use of Osborn tools. The Osborn products save operators time on the CNC machines, too, allowing them to run other machines or set up for the next job while equipment is running.
The Kalitta team had noticed Osborn’s “participation in high-performance NHRA racing and the use of our products in the sport. They were interested in learning more about the products for use by their team,” Ebner says. “As we had further discussions with them about product selection, we realized that they would be a perfect fit for our marketing activities around the performance of the products,” and the talks involved into a sponsorship discussion.
Not only are Kalitta’s cars fast but the behind-the-scenes team must run quickly, rebuilding engines and getting cars back on the track in less than 45 minutes. Osborn brushes and abrasives have helped Kalitta accelerate the preparation of cylinder heads for welding, all the way to finishing.
“We are race fans,” Ebner says. “Meeting the high-performance demands of drag racing is the proving ground for our products, and we are excited to be partnering with Kalitta, helping to give them a competitive edge.”