Tag Archives: Automation

Interlinked, Automated Shot Blast System Provides Excellent Paint Preparation

With more than 80 years of experience, Rosler has developed, installed, serviced, and provided consumables for shot blast systems for a variety of industries and applications.

When a Polish manufacturer of complex steel weldments was ready to invest in a new shot blast machine, key selection criteria included quality, capacity, high equipment uptime, and integration into the existing manufacturing flow. As an essential part of the pre-treatment operation for a cathodic painting line, the system also needed to produce optimal surface preparation results within an interlinked workflow in a 3-shift operation.

The company chose a Rosler continuous feed spinner hanger blast machine because of its wear-resistant design and favorable operating costs.

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Intuitive Post Processing Preserves Intricate 3D-Printed Details

AM Solutions, a brand of The Rosler Group, provides post-processing solutions for a number of customers worldwide.

For leading manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and high-precision cutting plotters, Mimaki, Rosler and AM Solutions collaborated with the Japanese printer manufacturer to develop a fully automated surface finishing system for a Full-Color Inkjet 3D Printer.

Through collaboration, a fully automatic machine capable of safely removing support structures for work pieces with the finest detail was developed.

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A Holistic Look at Automated Blasting in the Modern Metal Fabrication Shop

Written by Rosler CEO Bernhard Kerschbaum, this article was originally published in The Fabricator.


Modern metal fabrication operations aren’t like the fab shops of old. Many are clean, well lit, with employees working in fresh, filtered air. Yes, some operations in fabrication are, well, just plain dirty—and manual blasting is a prime example. The work isn’t pleasant, requires protective gear, and if the booths aren’t maintained or set up properly, they can constrain workflow in a serious way.

Options in blasting automation abound, but before diving into all that technological wizardry, try laying some groundwork by answering a fundamental question: What must the blasting operation accomplish?

Shot Blasting Versus Shot Peening

Shot blasting (or just “blasting” if using a different media other than shot) prepares a metal surface while shot peening aims to change the metal’s properties (see Figure 1). Certain aerospace applications require precise levels of stress relief (or other changes to material properties), and they use specialized shot-peening technologies to achieve it. Precision shot peening of landing gears is a prime example, with the process optimizing surface stresses, eliminating microcracks and the stress risers around them.

Most metal fabricators employ blast cleaning for the vast majority of their applications, cleaning and preparing a metal surface for the next manufacturing step, usually painting. If a beam or plate isn’t blasted correctly, paint won’t adhere properly. However, some fabrication operations do employ a kind of peening—not as precise as high-end peening applications, but it’s peening nonetheless, with the media impacting the surface and causing compressive stresses that aim to change the material’s properties.

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Wet Blasting Equipment & Media, Part 1 – Machines Range in Complexity, Uses

Because of its many technical advantages and versatility, wet blasting is the fastest-growing segment in the field of shot blasting.

As with dry blasting, the available scope of wet blasting machinery ranges from simple, low-cost blast cabinets to sophisticated, partially or fully automated systems. Customers can choose between a wide spectrum of standard wet blasting equipment, however, for certain applications, special custom-engineered systems may offer the most efficient and cost-effective solution.

The machine type is usually determined by the processing task, the size and shape of the work pieces, and the desired degree of automation. Frequently, multi-axis robots are used for work piece handling or guiding the blast gun movement.

Rosler has extensive experience in wet blasting technology and the development of customized solutions. We have even developed the Rosler PureFinish® system for cleaning stainless steel components for the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries through wet blasting. This system cleans the work piece surface while facilitating cleaning, sterilization, and prohibiting bacterial growth.

Learn more about common types of wet blasting systems and examples of machine use for a glimpse into the technical capabilities wet blasting offers.

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Automation Part 7 – The Top 3 Mass Finishing and Shot Blasting Machines

Rosler understands that automating aspects of your mass finishing and shot blasting processes has never been more critical.

As we have learned during recent world events, outside factors can have a significant impact on your ability to maintain a largely manual process. Though automated mass finishing and shot blasting machinery does require some human intervention, it can often be operated with a minimal headcount and limited human contact.

In previous blogs, we have explored how an automated-first posture can help you to gain significant efficiencies, lower costs, and increase your competitive advantage. We have also looked at the balance between automation and the environment and have discussed ways that you can mitigate environmental impacts of operating automated mass finishing and shot blasting machinery.

We now conclude our Automation Blog Series with best practice examples of automated mass finishing and shot blasting machines Rosler offers and the associated accessories and components available to help in building your next-generation automated processes.

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Automation, Part 5 – What Automation Hardware is Available?

As previously discussed in our Automation Blog Series, building a robotically assisted process requires evaluating your surface finishing system along with its problems and goals and selecting the right machine and consumables. Automating a mass finishing or shot blasting process also requires selecting the automated hardware that will best achieve your overall goals and provides the most efficiency in terms of time and manual labor.

An experienced partner such as Rosler Metal Finishing can provide insight and advice on the numerous material handling tools specially designed or adapted to mass finishing and shot blasting process improvement.

Work Piece Loading Systems

Including skip loaders, lift and tip loaders, vibratory feed hoppers, and other tools, work piece loading systems are ideal for small- to mid-sized work pieces handled in bulk.

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Automation, Part 4 – Choosing the Right Machine and Consumables

Rosler Metal Finishing understands that automation integration requires careful planning to ensure the best, most efficient results. Whether for mass finishing or shot blasting, we have more than 80 years of experience helping customers match machines and consumables.

Taking time to evaluate your process needs as a whole will help you and a trusted partner such as Rosler determine what machine and consumables will best suit your automation needs and goals.

How do I choose the right machine?

Selecting the right machine is the most critical step to ensure the success of any automation project. Without the right machine, your automation process is sure to fail or produce disappointing results.

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Automation, Part 3 — What Problems Do You Want to Solve?

We’ve all heard the saying “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” At Rosler Metal Finishing, we often view automation as the solution—or fix, if you will—for mass finishing and shot blasting processes in need of added efficiency.

Previous posts in our Automation Blog Series focused on how robots improve finishing processes and why automation is beneficial to your business. We now turn our focus to an organization’s potential motivation for considering automation with the question, “What problems do you want to solve?”

Both mass finishing and shot blasting are specialized processes that require a lot of practical consideration. Automating these processes can deliver great benefits to a manufacturer when properly targeted to a prescribed need, but, if the engineers developing the machine don’t understand your challenges, the solution is likely to miss its mark.

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Automation, Part 2 – Why Automation is Beneficial for Your Business

It’s hard to dispute that technology, on the whole, has made our lives easier and more convenient. Myriad functions have been automated – and improved – to mitigate the effects of human intervention. We make purchases more intelligently, we manage data more efficiently, we can control devices with our voices and eye movements, and we ultimately move through life with less left to chance.

In the world of manufacturing, this mitigation of human intervention promises even greater and more measurable, efficiencies. At Rosler Metal Finishing, quality improvements and cost benefits that have resulted from the mechanization and automation of mass finishing and shot blasting operations deliver dividends that transcend the manufacturing floor.

Rosler Multichannel System
Rosler Multichannel System

Since the first microprocessor-controlled machine appeared on the manufacturing floor in 1974, hundreds of new varieties have been shipped across the world. With each improvement, these automated attendants encompass a larger footprint, are able to handle heavier loads and more axes, and require fewer controllers to do their work, according to a McKinsey study.

Automation has revolutionized smaller tasks as well, including simple parts bin handling, lift assists, automatic media adding systems, or multi-step process control systems (like those where noxious chemicals are dosed, without human risk, into the process).

So how do these automation upgrades pay off for you? Let’s start by taking a look at where mass finishing and shot blasting has fit into the manufacturing paradigm. Then we’ll dive deeper into the benefits of today’s automated processes which have a lasting impact on the finished product.

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Automation, Part 1 – How Robots Are Improving Mass Finishing and Shot Blasting Processes

Automation is changing the way mass finishing and shot blasting processes are delivered. In this seven-part blog series, Rosler Metal Finishing will explain what has given rise to automation trends, the human factors of these manufacturing upgrades, and how such automated processes deliver benefits to your business.

Those of us of a certain age remember a portrayal of robotics that, in hindsight, was rather quaint: human-looking automated machines would be crisscrossing our landscape, delivering us food and wardrobe, pumping our gas, collecting our garbage, or – in a more macabre rendering – leading a rise of the machines that would eliminate the human race.

Rosler Surf Finisher with automation options
Rosler Surf Finisher with automation options

In reality, Rosie the Robot and the Terminator have not ruled the world, as predicted by Hollywood. Today, faceless, automated machines, arms, and processors are streamlining the way in which products and services are delivered.

In fact, a World Economic Forum article found that the 2020s will be the “age of automation,” with manual jobs making up only 35 percent of the manufacturing labor force by the end of this decade (a drop from 48 percent, as measured in 2016).

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