Industry news
RETROFIT: OPTIMIZING SHOT BLAST PROCESSES AND REDUCING COSTS
Increased performance – not only for shot peening applications
It is generally extremely difficult, if not impossible, to increase productivity and boost energy efficiency in conventional shot blast machines. A way out of this dilemma is, for example, retrofitting existing shot blast machines with R?sler Long Life blast turbines, which will enhance productivity and help to significantly cut operating and maintenance costs.
When it comes to improving uptime, output, quality of the shot blasting results or energy requirements, most shot blast machines operating in the field will not allow these requirements to be met, or they can only be fulfilled with very high up-front costs. The “TuneUp” division at R?sler deals exclusively with the modernisation of all makes of shot blast machines and offers numerous customer specific solutions for equipment optimisation.
Increased performance and process stability and with reduced equipment wear
The OSK-Kiefer GmbH with six locations in Germany is a specialist in subcontract shot blasting. Among the customers of this renowned job shop company are leading manufacturers of cars and trucks, aircraft, agricultural equipment, transmissions, drive train components, pumps, compressors and gas & steam turbines.
At its plant in Petershausen the company operates several shot peening systems equipped with blast turbines. The plant manager Rudolf Schickinger explains: “The turbines on our shot peening machines were getting somewhat old; at the same time new customer requirements dictated the installation of new turbines offering a higher performance, better wear characteristics and higher energy efficiency”.
For this reason, OSK-Kiefer decided to equip three of its shot peening systems with R?sler Long Life Y 330 blast turbines with an installed power of 7.5 kW each. Key factors for this decision were the increased blast performance by 30% and the long life of the throwing blades providing more than 10,000 blast hours. While OSK-Kiefer is utilising round shot with its shot peening machines, it is worth mentioning that these throwing blades made from hard metal are especially effective with very abrasive blast media such as grit with a hardness of up to 64 HRC. With such aggressive media the users of older style turbines are confronted with very low uptimes and frequent wear part changes constantly disrupting the operation.
Rudolf Schickinger summarizes his experience with the new turbines: “With the Y 330 turbines we achieved not only the targeted performance increase but actually still have considerable reserve capacity. Moreover, after approximately 12 months operation we barely notice any wear. Of course, this has also helped reduce our maintenance work. Another important aspect is the improved process stability. With our old turbines the shot blast results were changing with the progressive wear of the throwing blades and required frequent adjustments of the control cage. Now the blast parameters remain constant which is an enormous improvement”.
Customer specific solutions for all styles of shot blast equipment
“TuneUp” from R?sler with its wide range of custom engineered solutions offers retrofitting shot blasting machines of all makes and designs.
The recently introduced energy efficient Gamma-G turbine range is another important addition to the R?sler turbine portfolio. It combines the process related technical advantages of the Rutten turbines, the extremely high throwing / velocity speed and subsequently, shorter cycle times, with the lower purchase price.
By utilizing energy saving components, for example IE03 drives, the modernisation of shot blast machines in Germany is subsidized by the federal office for economic and export affairs (BAFA) with up to 30% of the investment expenditures. Furthermore, R?sler offers the possibility for testing the turbines beforehand on site, practically eliminating any risk to the customer. And with each quote the customer receives an operating cost analysis making the investment totally safe.
But “TuneUp” is a lot more: R?sler also optimises the general wear protection, the blast media replenishment and cleaning systems in shot blast machines. For example, in foundry applications high capacity magnetic separators are installed to reduce the amount of residual sand in the blast media.
MAX-IMP: Automated blast pattern control
It is generally extremely difficult, if not impossible, to increase productivity and boost energy efficiency in conventional shot blast machines. A way out of this dilemma is, for example, retrofitting existing shot blast machines with R?sler Long Life blast turbines, which will enhance productivity and help to significantly cut operating and maintenance costs.
When it comes to improving uptime, output, quality of the shot blasting results or energy requirements, most shot blast machines operating in the field will not allow these requirements to be met, or they can only be fulfilled with very high up-front costs. The “TuneUp” division at R?sler deals exclusively with the modernisation of all makes of shot blast machines and offers numerous customer specific solutions for equipment optimisation.
Increased performance and process stability and with reduced equipment wear
The OSK-Kiefer GmbH with six locations in Germany is a specialist in subcontract shot blasting. Among the customers of this renowned job shop company are leading manufacturers of cars and trucks, aircraft, agricultural equipment, transmissions, drive train components, pumps, compressors and gas & steam turbines.
At its plant in Petershausen the company operates several shot peening systems equipped with blast turbines. The plant manager Rudolf Schickinger explains: “The turbines on our shot peening machines were getting somewhat old; at the same time new customer requirements dictated the installation of new turbines offering a higher performance, better wear characteristics and higher energy efficiency”.
For this reason, OSK-Kiefer decided to equip three of its shot peening systems with R?sler Long Life Y 330 blast turbines with an installed power of 7.5 kW each. Key factors for this decision were the increased blast performance by 30% and the long life of the throwing blades providing more than 10,000 blast hours. While OSK-Kiefer is utilising round shot with its shot peening machines, it is worth mentioning that these throwing blades made from hard metal are especially effective with very abrasive blast media such as grit with a hardness of up to 64 HRC. With such aggressive media the users of older style turbines are confronted with very low uptimes and frequent wear part changes constantly disrupting the operation.
Rudolf Schickinger summarizes his experience with the new turbines: “With the Y 330 turbines we achieved not only the targeted performance increase but actually still have considerable reserve capacity. Moreover, after approximately 12 months operation we barely notice any wear. Of course, this has also helped reduce our maintenance work. Another important aspect is the improved process stability. With our old turbines the shot blast results were changing with the progressive wear of the throwing blades and required frequent adjustments of the control cage. Now the blast parameters remain constant which is an enormous improvement”.
Customer specific solutions for all styles of shot blast equipment
“TuneUp” from R?sler with its wide range of custom engineered solutions offers retrofitting shot blasting machines of all makes and designs.
The recently introduced energy efficient Gamma-G turbine range is another important addition to the R?sler turbine portfolio. It combines the process related technical advantages of the Rutten turbines, the extremely high throwing / velocity speed and subsequently, shorter cycle times, with the lower purchase price.
By utilizing energy saving components, for example IE03 drives, the modernisation of shot blast machines in Germany is subsidized by the federal office for economic and export affairs (BAFA) with up to 30% of the investment expenditures. Furthermore, R?sler offers the possibility for testing the turbines beforehand on site, practically eliminating any risk to the customer. And with each quote the customer receives an operating cost analysis making the investment totally safe.
But “TuneUp” is a lot more: R?sler also optimises the general wear protection, the blast media replenishment and cleaning systems in shot blast machines. For example, in foundry applications high capacity magnetic separators are installed to reduce the amount of residual sand in the blast media.
MAX-IMP: Automated blast pattern control
With the patented MAX-IMP system “TuneUp” also offers an elegant solution for the automatic blast pattern control. During the blast process a special sensor, mounted directly in front of the blast turbine, is moved into the hot spot to measure the blast stream. The results of this measurement are analyzed by a special electronic controller and displayed within a few seconds. This elegant, very easy to handle, system replaces the conventional, highly time consuming and subjective manual blast pattern controls and results in higher machine uptimes, lower operating costs and increased process stability.
（Source from:foundry-planet.com)
