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Automation for high-value castings

Regardless of how a component is cast, tasks such as desanding, deburring and surface cleaning are often still carried out manually. Not only are they time consuming and highly labourintensive, but the quality of manual blasting strongly depends on the skills of the person who is blasting, resulting in a process that is not consistent or documentable. High-quality shot blast results are, however, a crucial quality aspect for any foundry product and an important competitive factor.

In the field of post treatment of small to medium-size castings in particular, Rösler offers solutions that will significantly increase the degree of automation in the fettling operation of a foundry. The benefits are not only limited to the field of large area external shot blasting, as targeted desanding and/or deburring of bore holes, channels, vents and undercuts are also possible.

In order to achieve optimum results in geometrically complex parts, the company determines the most suitable position of the blast wheels, or nozzles, as well as the component by way of a 3D simulation of the proposed blast cleaning process.

The automatic control and monitoring of various parameters of the shot blasting process ensures that all components are treated according to their individual needs at a consistently high quality level. For example the processing intensity can be adjusted by varying the throwing speed of the blast media. The required processing time to achieve consistent shot blasting results is determined by defining the amount of blast media thrown per unit of time. The cycle time can be shortened and throughput rates can be increased by increasing the blast media quantity.

An automatic component positioning device guarantees that geometrically complex components in particular are positioned accurately in the blasting chamber. By monitoring the quality and grain size of the blast media, spent abrasive can be continuously separated from the process and replaced with fresh abrasive via a media replenishing system.

By registering every single component in the equipment control panel program, the conditions under which the component has been shot blasted can be traced back reliably. The advantages of automated processing of iron, steel and non-ferrous raw castings are such that cost-savings and quality improvements can be realized: improved process safety; up to 80 per cent less manual work; lower labour cost; higher throughput rates; lower manufacturing costs; and repeatable and documentable shot blasting processes.

Custom engineered automation The internal desanding of cylinder heads is a delicate task, as channels and side walls can be extremely thin. Special care must be taken to make sure that the shot blasting process does not abrade too much material as well ensuring that all residual sand is completely removed.

In order to achieve optimum process safety and reduce the amount of costly scrap, truck manufacturer MAN replaced its manual shot blasting processes with a Rösler semi-automatic air blast system (picture left). The STD 1400-2 x 8 is equipped with highpressure blast nozzles with the pressure of each blast nozzle being monitored individually. The nozzles are moving via a three-axis traversing unit which ensures that all channels and vents are reached and cleaned within pre-set cycle times. In addition, a tumbling movement ensures that trapped blast media is removed from the parts. The effective processing time for an eight-cylinder block is two minutes in the Rösler machine compared with five minutes for the manual process. After the blast process a 100 per cent inspection takes place. In addition to the achieved consistency of the blast process, the tailor-made Rösler system provided MAN with an eight times higher productivity, so resulting in considerably lower costs.

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