Surface Preparation and Surface Finishing

Posted on December 9, 2015 by

Roslerblog is a guide to answer questions, solve problems and provide inspiration for, and around issues and challenges facing companies and industries using vibratory finishing and shot blasting processes.

Focusing on key issues you are keen to know more about our experts will share their knowledge so that you can use it to your advantage.

Now you can also subscribe to follow the Roslerblog. 

Click on the follow button below the categories section, enter your email address and choose the frequency you want to receive new posts from Rösler. 

This blog is intended to introduce and offer both beginners and more experienced engineers a guide to help you with your requirements in the fields of surface finishing and preparation. Our goal with the blog is to share knowledge, encourage discussion and opinion sharing, so please feel free to leave your comments and let us know your views.

We hope you enjoy reading Roslerblog and come back frequently to view the latest posts.

 

welcome post picture as at 29072015

For more information on surface preparation and surface finishing please visit www.rosler.com

 

SANDRA PHOTPost written by
Sandra Banks
Personal Assistant / Digital Marketing

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How Big Is 1μm?

Posted on June 23, 2017 by

When designers and manufacturing companies specify surface finishes more often than not we’re talking in micrometres (µm), but what exactly is a µm?

1 µm is 0.001mm or one thousandth of one millimetre.  In other words it is a very fine measurement and as such it can be hard to comprehend.  So the best way to understand it for many of us is to compare it to everyday things we’d know, such as a cigarette paper, human hair, paperclip wire or needle.

This image from our partners Haas illustrates how these items measure up and what a µm equates to in comparison.   For more details on their range of machining centres please visit their website at: http://www.haas-schleifmaschinen.de/en/

In comparison to microinches (written as µin or µ”) 1 µm = approximately 40 µ”.  1 µ” being equal to one millionth of an inch (0.000001”).  (So a 15µm surface finish = 600µ” and a 320µ” surface finish = 8µm as examples of conversions).

To understand more about surface reading types and how they are calculated, please see our post on A Guide to Understanding Surface Roughness Measurement Types

 

Post written by
Stephen Lewis-Brammer
General Manager

 

 

 

 

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The Reasons Why Super Finishing Enhances Component Performance

Posted on June 8, 2017 by

The Super Finishing removes the asperities that are inherent in the manufacturing process. By safely removing these microscopic peaks, the Super Finishing process leaves a much more uniform surface that reduces friction and allows for increased lubrication capability.  While the dimensional integrity of the part remains intact, the result is an improved component that will operate at lower temperatures, have increased durability, quieter operation and increased time between maintenance.

 Better surface properties on gear teeth and other functional surfaces are responsible for:

  • reducing friction and wear;
  • reducing operating temperature, even at high speeds;
  • eliminating any need for ‘run in’ time and reducing the risk of component failure at the initial stages of its life;
  • reduction of vibration and noise within the unit, again increasing its marketability and improving its performance;
  • cleaner lubricant as a result of reduced component wear producing ‘debris’ to pollute the component’s working environment (resulting again in shortening the component life span);

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PureFinish® Stainless Steel Treatment For Optimum Hygiene

Posted on May 22, 2017 by

PureFinish® is a post-processing technique.  This technique allows stainless steel to be finished to a smoother surface with a low and reproducible SRI value below 0.010.  In practice, this produces a surface with a very low degree of adhesion characteristics. The PureFinish® treatment has been extensively tested by TNO. TNO, a Dutch organisation is the leading institute for Applied Scientific Research.  The SRI value (Soil Retention Index) was investigated because this parameter most accurately describes the relationship between surface structure, contamination and cleanliness.

Within the food and pharmaceutical industries hygiene is a top priority, not only for safety but also to prevent contamination and to ensure the quality of the product in terms of taste, aroma and appearance.  The occurrence of contamination through bacteria, proteins or other elements must therefore be prevented.  Process plants require a defined, homogeneous and reproducible surface for all parts that come in contact with food, beverage and pharmaceutical products.

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Posted in Applications Library, Useful Reference Guides, Wet/Vapour Blasting | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blast Cleaning Of Welded Constructions

Posted on May 2, 2017 by

These machines are capable of cleaning and descaling complex welded fabricated components and constructions. They are designed specifically to clean wide head and base plates, ribs, re-enforcements along with the welded seams after construction.

rrbk-1

All round blasting is achieved after 3D simulation and actual placement of the blast wheels in the optimum locations of the blast chamber. The chamber can be designed with 2 blast zones, each zone designed to blast clean the surface of the infeed side and the second, the outfeed side and end. As the fabrication passes through the chamber, all gussets, re-enforcements, ribs, angles are descaled and cleaned to Sa Swedish standards and with the desired profile to optimise the adhesion of the coating to be applied.

The equipment requires to easily meet the most stringent customer specifications regarding surface cleanliness and cost, for steel traders, steel fabricators, equipment manufacturers, shipyards and manufacturers of wind power stations. In wind power applications roller conveyor systems are utilised for shot blasting of the steel sheets or plate required for the fabrication of the towers for off-shore and land based windmills.

large-pipe

Typical applications fall into these fabricating industries:

  • Steel traders/ distributors
  • Steel fabricators
  • Equipment manufacturers
  • Gas and oil
  • Aerospace
  • Power generation – including wind turbine columns
  • Transport – rail, bus, lorry, earthmoving, agricultural
  • Steel portal frame, tower block, stadium and steel construction
  • Bridge , crane, access, scaffolding and lifting gear

Partners for Steel

There are distinct benefits to be offered by the cooperation between the manufacturers of both shotblast equipment and multispindle drill/saw lines. The objective of cooperation (as partners for steel) is to support customers in resolving the interface problems between the various technologies, integrating shotblasting, measuring, marking, drilling and sawing or punching and shearing or coping and profiling thereby offering customers added value and profit from the processing of steel.

Click here for information on cleanliness standards

Click here for information on surface profile

For further information on roller conveyor shot blast machines please click here

 

Haydn Kitchen New APost written by
Haydn Kitchen
Shot Blasting Technical Manager

 

Posted in Equipment Selection, Shot Blasting | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Structural Steel Descaling

Posted on May 2, 2017 by

Steel trading companies and fabricators shot blast their steel plate, sections and pipes to achieve a degree of surface cleanliness that is required before protective coatings are applied or other surface preparation needs.

Automated roller conveyor shot blast systems offer solutions which guarantee a highly-efficient descaling, rust /oxidisation removal and general surface cleaning of all kinds of steel.rrb

Shot blasting is a process for the surface treatment of plate, pipes, beams, tubes and bars.

Due to the design, roller conveyor shot blast systems are ideally suited for this application as it allows fast and highly-effective cleaning and surface preparation and at the same time, provides the surface with a profile to which a coating will adhere well, accommodating a wide- range of commercial to marine offshore standards.

stahlbau-strahlen-007-doppel-t-traeger-8f

The equipment descales the surface of the steel ready to accept a first-class coating, or further engineering processes.

Equipment design and efficiency are paramount and should include the following as basic design and inclusions;

  • Infeed and outfeed vestibules should be long enough to stop abrasive escapement
  • The blast chamber itself should be constructed from wear-resistant manganese steel
  • The blast chamber requires to be further periphery lined with replaceable tiles again manufactured manganese steel, for durability
  • The blast requires to be delivered by a number of highly-efficient blast wheels set at an ideal angle to optimise the blasting coverage of the profile or plate
  • The blast wheels require to be driven by highly energy efficient electric motors, that are energy saving to the latest design standards of power efficiency
  • The system requires to recycle the abrasive and to include an airwash separation screen that is also highly-efficient in its function of separating out dust, scale and fines out to waste bins
  • Only good cleaned abrasive should be recycled back for re use
  • Abrasive level control is a vital inclusion, as without information, the efficiency of cleaning, repeatability and uniformity of the steel surface is all but impossible
  • A rotational brush and blow off unit, after blasting will complete the process and provides a very clean component that can be either removed from the outfeed conveyor or be handled automatically for further processing
  • Dust and contaminated air requires to be always drawn through the shotblast system under negative atmosphere, and passed through a very efficient cartridge-type dust collector/filter unit with a discharge back into the hall as low as 1mg/cu mtr down to 0.5 micron particulates and has an efficiency of upto 99.09%
  • By placing the cleaned spent air back into the building, residual and any ambient heat can be retained in the winter months which can contribute to the reduction of heating costs of the internal working environment

Generally, standard equipment concepts allow the processing of components from 1000mm wide, upto 5200mm wide and 600mm high. Other configurations may be offered as bespoke equipment and to accommodate more complexly designed fabrications.

Click here for information on cleanliness standards

Click here for information on surface profile

For further information  on roller conveyor shot blast machines click here

 

Haydn Kitchen New APost written by
Haydn Kitchen
Shot Blasting Technical Manager

 

 

Posted in Equipment Selection, Shot Blasting | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Surface Finishing Technologies Add Value to “Fine Blanked” Components

Posted on April 11, 2017 by

Fine-blanking can achieve flatness and cut edge characteristics that are unobtainable by conventional stamping and punching methods and surface finishing adds additional value.

Fine blanking is capable of combining several steps normally required by traditional stamping making this procedure a very time-efficient process. In a single step, fine blanking can produce a part which would normally require multiple operations in terms of man hours and equipment set-ups.  Fine blanking is known and is a recognised method for creating component parts with fully sheared crisp clean edges, close tolerances and profile, eliminating in many cases, secondary requirements.

The production of fine blanks can be formed from various metal types of steel, non-ferrous including zinc, aluminum, aluminum alloys, copper and brass for the automotive industry and other industrial sectors.

Many companies keep the important operation of surface finishing in-house and utilise various systems such as rotary vibrators, centrifugal disk machines and waste water treatment systems.  The size and shape of the parts as well as the surface finish requirements, determine which type of mass finishing system is required.

To be cost-effective, mass finishing operations for many and various fine blanked parts require the utilisation of different mass finishing technologies.

 Shorter cycle times with centrifugal disk finishing

 Centrifugal disk finishing systems are ideal for such applications.  When it comes to intensive grinding and polishing, centrifugal disk machines are usually 10 – 30 times more productive. Their separation system guarantees batch integrity. However, these finishing systems are somewhat limited by the batch size. For example, a batch of relatively high quantity of parts weighing 400 kg require to be divided into several smaller batches.

Typically, for these larger production capacities, a fully automatic centrifugal disk finishing machine which processes the parts without any operator involvement all the way to depositing the finished parts into dedicated parts bins, is an ideal option. The effluent from this centrifugal disk machine can be cleaned with an effluent treatment process centrifuge after which the cleaned water and compound can be recirculated many times, to achieve considerable cost savings.

Alternatively, consideration could be given to a fully automated rotary system and possibly with several small centrifugal disk finishing machines. The effluent from all these finishing machines can be handled by a waste water centrifuge before being recycled. This allows running several surface finishing processes with optimum results and excellent cost control.

Fully automated finishing cell

Do you know the difference between standard rotary vibro bowls and high speed processing?

For the processing of larger quantities of component parts a range of high-speed rotary vibrators is an available option, with superior grinding performance and with process economics in mind.

For the processing of large quantities of component parts

In high speed rotary vibrators, (already in use at numerous manufacturers of fine blanks, stampings, folded or bent, sawn, cold and hot forged component parts), batches of 400 kg can be processed irrespective of whether a batch consists of 10 or 45,000 parts. The performance of high speed rotary vibrators is up to 60% higher than that of standard rotary vibrators which contributes to a quick payback or amortisation.

 

Click image to watch an automated
centrifugal disk system in operation

 

 

Post written by
Sandra Banks
Personal Assistant / Digital Marketing

 

Posted in Mass Finishing, Mass Finishing Applications | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

New Vibratory Finishing System Treats The Internal Channels of Components

Posted on March 24, 2017 by
pi02_Domloser_Vibrator_mit_Hubeinrichtung

DL rotary vibrators allow for safe and efficient finishing of the internal channels in complex work pieces

 

One of the most technically challenging aspects of mass finishing is the ability to effectively treat the internal channels of precision components. This is especially true in industries which face very stringent requirements, such as; automotive, aerospace, tooling and medical.  It is essential for these manufacturers to achieve precise finishing results.

Fully automatic operation produces precise and consistent results

A new specialised line of rotary vibrators that do not have an inner dome, which allows for automatic, precise surface grinding, smoothing and high gloss polishing of such specialised components.  New DL vibrators allow for fully automatic and reliable treatment of such inner contours, resulting in excellent finishing results,  achieved in either wet or dry operational mode.  Even with extremely delicate and complex contours the dimensional integrity of the work pieces is fully maintained.  Depending on the components, their original surface readings and the selected finishing process, Rz values of as low as 0.1 µm can be achieved.

R150DL2 machine fixture as at 28042017In this type of machine, one or multiple work pieces may be attached to specially designed fixtures. The complete unit with the attached work piece(s) is then firmly mounted into the DL vibratory finishing system. For certain applications the loading and unloading operation can take place with a pneumatic lifting device, this eliminates the need for entirely removing the media from the work bowl when unloading the fixture with mounted part(s).

The vibratory energy is provided by two high-performance vibratory motors, placed on the outer wall of the work bowl, which is transferred to the work pieces that are mounted to the bottom of the work bowl. The intense vibration causes the processing media to flow through and around contours, internal passages or undercuts in the work pieces, without getting stuck.

Compared to standard vibratory systems, this sophisticated machine design combined with powerful vibratory motors (3,000 RPM) produces a 30% increase in processing intensity, resulting in comparably short cycle times. Adjustment of the imbalance weights and control of the motor speed, with frequency inverters, provides the ability to adapt the processing intensity to match the work pieces and the desired finishing task.

Equipment suitable for a multitude of finishing tasks

DL rotary vibrators are the perfect solution for finishing complex work pieces, such as; housings, pump or fan wheels, blisks, dies and moulds, tools, automotive wheels and a variety of other work pieces.  Ensure you have sample processing trials carried out on your components so that you receive a tailor-made finishing solution, with the highest finishing quality, short cycle times and high cost efficiency.

All DL vibratory finishing systems are equipped with an easy to use control panel, which includes process timers. For wet finishing operations, compound and water are fed into the machine with a precise dosing system.

 

For more information on DL type vibratory finishing machines please click here.

 

SANDRA PHOTPost written by
Sandra Banks
Personal Assistant / Digital Marketing

Posted in Equipment Selection, Mass Finishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment